Editorial 1: Missing in Parliament
Context:
- Currently, the post of deputy speaker in vacant in Lok Sabha, as no election was conducted for it within the Lok Sabha, As a result this matter reached to supreme court and SC sent notice to union government regarding it.
- Under Article 83(2) of the Constitution, the term of the Lok Sabha begins from the day of its first meeting and ends on the day it completes five years from that date unless it is dissolved earlier.
- So, the term of the present Lok Sabha will end on June 16, 2024. It has completed three years and seven months of its term. In June 2024, the 18th Lok Sabha is expected to be elected.
Presiding office of the Lok Sabha:
- There are two presiding officers for the Lok Sabha, namely the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, who are elected by the members of the House.
- Under Article 93 of the Constitution, as soon as the House meets after the election these two presiding officers are elected one after the other.
- The practice followed so far has been to elect the Speaker after the oath-taking. Thereafter, within a few days, the Deputy Speaker is also elected.
- However, in the present Lok Sabha, the House has not elected a Deputy Speaker even after three years and seven months of its term are over.
- The non-election of the Deputy Speaker has now reached the Supreme Court, which has reportedly sent notice to the Union government.
Historically Significant of speaker and deputy speaker
- The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker are described in the Constitution as officers of Parliament, which signifies their importance in the parliamentary system.
- There may be an impression in some quarters that the Deputy Speaker is not an indispensable office and the House can be run even without one.
- Considering the history of this office, it can be said surely that a Deputy Speaker is as important as the Speaker for the House.
- The history of the office of Deputy Speaker goes back to the government of India Act of 1919 when he was called Deputy President as the Speaker was known as the president of the central legislative assembly.
- Although the main functions of a Deputy Speaker were to preside over the sittings of the assembly in the absence of the Speaker and chair the select committees etc., the position was considered necessary to share the responsibility of running the House with the Speaker and guide the nascent committees.
- This tradition was continued after Independence, when a Deputy Speaker was elected to chair, besides the Speaker, the meetings of the Constituent Assembly (Legislative).
- The first Speaker was G V Mavalankar and the first Deputy Speaker was M Ananthasayanam Ayyangar who was elected by the Constituent Assembly (Legislative) on September 3, 1948.
- Later under the new Constitution, he was elected the first Deputy Speaker of the House of the people on May 28, 1952. Thereafter, every Lok Sabha had a Deputy Speaker who would be elected after a few days of the election of the Speaker.
- The few exceptions were S Mallikarjunaiah in the 10th Lok Sabha who was elected 33 days after the election of the Speaker, Suraj Bhan who was elected 49 days after the election of the Speaker and P M Sayeed who was elected to that office 9 months after the election of the Speaker
Electing process of Deputy speaker:
- Article 93 says that the House shall elect the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker as soon as may be, the practice has been for the government to propose the name of the Speaker and choose a member from the Opposition as a consensus candidate for the post of Deputy Speaker
- This practice was not strictly followed only on some occasions. Otherwise, choosing an Opposition member as the Deputy Speaker has been, by and large, followed as a healthy convention.
- But if a government does not favour an Opposition member for political reasons, it is free to choose a member from its own party
- As per per Rule 8 of the Rules and Procedure of Lok Sabha it is the Speaker who has to fix the date of the election of the Deputy Speaker.
- Once the date is fixed, any member can propose the name of any other member through a motion for the consideration of the House.
- The House can then proceed to elect its Deputy Speaker. But in reality, it is the government which initiates the political process of the consultation with other parties and works out a consensus.
- If this does not work, the government can propose the name of its own member for this position.
- Since it is the Speaker who has to set the process in motion by fixing the date and he has not done it so far, any member of the House can move a resolution requesting the Speaker to fix the date.
- The date of election of the Speaker is decided by the President who needs to go by the advice of the Union cabinet which, in fact, chooses the date.
- In the case of the Speaker, there is no constitutional requirement for him to wait for the advice of the Union cabinet in fixing the date of election of the Deputy Speaker. However, the political reality is different.
Role and Function of Deputy speaker:
- Deputy Speaker has the same power as the Speaker when he presides over a sitting of the House.
- Similarly no appeal lies to the Speaker against a ruling given by the Deputy Speaker. So the Speaker is powerless in the matter of revising or overruling a decision of the Deputy Speaker.
- Under Article 95(1) of the Constitution, the Deputy Speaker gets all the powers of the Speaker when the office of the Speaker is vacant, so the Deputy Speaker can also determine the petitions relating to disqualification under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.
Conclusion:
- Although the Deputy Speaker gets to exercise these powers only in the absence of the Speaker his decisions are final and binding when he gives a ruling.
- In the eventuality of the Speaker remaining absent for a longer time due to illness or otherwise the government will have to grapple with the unpredictability of a ruling or an adverse decision by a Deputy Speaker who comes from the Opposition ranks.
- Maybe by not electing the Deputy Speaker someone decided to err on the side of caution. But now that the Supreme Court is seized of the matter the status quo may be disturbed. Article 93 contains a mandatory provision which needs to be carried out by the House.
Editorial 2: Unusual February heat, and the ‘normal abnormal’ in global weather
Recent Context:
- It is still February, technically a winter month, and temperatures in some parts of the country are touching 40 degrees Celsius
- . There are already concerns over the possibility of an intensely hot summer and extended heat waves this year.
- The current spell of abnormally high temperatures, mainly in northern and western India, is no indicator of how hot the summer, or the rest of the year will be.
- The prevailing hot conditions are expected to subside in another two days, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). But it is still likely to still remain above the normal temperatures.
Unusually warm Feb and IMD’s heat wave dilemma
- The maximum temperature in February, averaged over the country as a whole, is expected to be around 28 degrees C based on the record of the 30-year period from 1981 to 2010.
- This is taken to be the “normal”. The minimum temperature is expected to be around 15 degrees C.
- Over the past week, however, maximum temperatures have been 5-11 degrees C higher than normal in most parts of northern and western India. Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra have been the most conspicuously hot, with temperatures in a few places reaching almost 40 degrees C.
- However, the biggest deviation from the normal has been seen in the relatively cool states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, where it has been 10-11 degrees C warmer in some places.
- In fact, such abnormally high temperatures qualify to be described as a “heat wave”. And it has the IMD in a fix.
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- By these definitions, several places have been experiencing heat wave conditions for the last few days. However, heat wave declarations by the IMD, which trigger follow-up action by the local administration, are meant only for the April-July period, not for February or March.
Absent western disturbances and weak sea breezes
- Any abnormal or extreme weather events are attributed to climate change these days. In most cases, particularly those related to unusually high temperatures, climate change is indeed the underlying or aggravating factor.
- But the observed abnormalities in weather do not always follow a fixed pattern, which might be expected if climate change was the sole determinant of these events. The randomness in extreme weather events is due to a variety of local and short-term meteorological coincidences.
- The IMD has attributed the current spell of hot weather to a combination of factors, including the absence of western disturbance activity in February, which brings some rainfall in this month and keeps temperatures down.
- The IMD has said that the plains have been relatively dry, and rainfall or snowfall in the hills has been subdued.
- According to the IMD, an anticyclonic formation over south Gujarat is one of the main reasons for the warming on the west coast. Its effect was being transmitted northward to Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and western Uttar Pradesh.
Weakening La Niña raises fears of a global heat record
- Globally, this year is widely expected to be a little hotter than the previous two years, mainly because of the expected end of the strongest ever La Niña event.
- La Niña refers to cooler than normal surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, which influences global weather. La Niña conditions tend to have a temporary cooling effect on the Earth’s atmosphere as well.
- The last two years have been cooler only in relative terms. Average global temperatures in 2022 were 1.15 degrees C higher than the pre-industrial average, making it the fifth or sixth warmest year on record. It was the fifth warmest year in India as well. The World Meteorological Organisation said it could have been substantially warmer in the absence of the La Niña event.
- The hottest year on record so far is 2016, when average global temperatures were 1.28 degrees C higher than the pre-industrial average. The 2015-2022 period saw the warmest eight years on record, each year being at least a degree C warmer than pre-industrial times.
Abnormal is the new normal, expect the unexpected
- Unusually high temperatures, or other extreme weather events, should hardly be a surprise now. Almost every month and year sees a record or two fall.
- Global warming has affected weather systems in very complicated ways, triggering unpredictable impacts.
- So, not all places are showing a consistent rising trend in temperatures. Several unusually colder months have also been recorded.
- Periods of extraordinarily intense rainfall have been interspersed with prolonged dry spells.
- The predictable patterns present difficult challenges for weather agencies around the world, who are finding it increasingly difficult to issue accurate forecasts and early warnings.