The outrage over voice vote
Elections 2009, Odisha Assembly March 22nd. 2009, 9:18pmAfter the BJD-BJP alliance broke BJP state legislators withdrew their support from the Orissa government. That led to the Governor asking the party in power to seek a confidence motion in the Orissa Legislative Assembly. The party in power did that, but through a voice vote. This led to cries of "murder of democracy" by many opposition leaders. The Governor sought clarifications from the Chief Minister, sought other counsels and went to Delhi to give his report. In other words there was a big broughaha over this issue. The following report from an article in Pioneer lists other such incidences and calls this outrage phoney.
The phoney hullabaloo over voice vote is nothing but a made-up controversy in these election times. There are precedents to show that confidence motions have been passed and no-confidence motions have been rejected by voice vote in the various State Assemblies and the Lok Sabha in the past. Complying with the orders of the Rajasthan Governor to prove his majority, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot won a confidence motion by voice vote on the floor of the Assembly on 3rd January this year. If no-confidence motions can be defeated by voice vote, why can’t the confidence motions be won by voice votes? Four such no-confidence motions were defeated by voice vote in the Lok Sabha itself. A no-confidence motion against Andhra Pradesh’s Congress Government moved by the Telugu Desam party was defeated by voice vote in April 2008. In the same year, a no-confidence motion against the Speaker of the AP Assembly was defeated in a similar fashion. In 2007, a no-confidence motion against the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly was defeated by voice vote too. In March 2003, a no-confidence motion against the UP Chief Minister Mayawati was also rejected by voice vote. Where is the recording of numbers that is being talked about? The cosmetic outrage over Naveen Patnaik winning the confidence motion by voice vote is being carried too far. As for the division of votes, let us see what happened to the no-confidence motion moved by Sonia Gandhi in August 2003 against the NDA Government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After the Speaker declared that the no-confidence motion has been defeated by voice vote, Congress pressed for a division. When the division took place, it was defeated by an overwhelming 126-vote margin. In our case, when the Speaker declared that the confidence motion has been passed by voice vote, Congress and the BJP had already left the House protesting against some of the Speaker’s rulings. Nobody from these parties was left in the House to demand a division.