The law that makes the Leader of the Opposition powerful, Know why there is a controversy over making Rahul Gandhi sit in the 5th row

There has been a controversy over the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi being seated in the fifth row at the event held at Red Fort on Independence Day. Congress has accused the central government of not giving due respect to the Leader of Opposition.

Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi and wrote, ‘Modi ji, now the time has come for you to understand the new reality after June 4. The arrogance with which you pushed the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to the last rows in the Lok Sabha during the Independence Day celebrations shows that you have not learned any lessons.

The entire responsibility of the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort rests with the Ministry of Defense. Sources associated with the Defense Ministry said that arrangements were made for the Olympic medal winners to sit in the front rows, so Rahul Gandhi was made to sit at the back.

According to protocol, the leader of the opposition is made to sit in the front row. It is being said that the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge was also given a seat in the fifth row. However, he did not come.

However, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinet called this clarification of the Defense Ministry ‘stupid’. She said that ‘Olympic medal winners should definitely get respect. But do Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Health Minister JP Nadda not want to give this respect. Why were they sitting in the front?’

However, this was after 10 years when the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha attended the Independence Day celebrations. Because in 2014 and 2019, Congress could not win enough seats to be given the post of Leader of Opposition. Because the post of Leader of Opposition is given to the party which has won at least 10% of the seats in the Lok Sabha i.e. 54 out of 543 seats. But in 2014, Congress could win only 44 seats and in 2019, it could win only 52 seats. In this election, Congress won 99 seats.

In the 2014 elections, the Congress had chosen Mallikarjun Kharge as its leader. In 2019, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary was elected leader. However, both times the Lok Sabha Speaker refused to give this post saying that the Congress does not have the required 10% seats.

The 10% rule came in 1956. Then Lok Sabha Speaker GV Mavalankar had directed that an MP from a party which has at least 10% seats will be recognised as the leader of the opposition.

Mavalankar was always a supporter of two-party democracy. He once said, democracy cannot progress properly unless there are parties other than the two major parties.

However, in many elections held after independence, no opposition party could get the post of Leader of Opposition because it could not win 10% or more seats. In 1969, for the first time in the Lok Sabha, a party was formally recognized as an opposition party. Actually, the Congress had split into two parts. Ram Subhag Singh, the leader of Congress (O) which broke away from the Congress, was given the status of Leader of Opposition. Ram Subhag Singh was the first Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

It is believed that the post of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha will be given only when the opposition party has at least 10% seats. With this logic, Congress was not given this post in 2014 and 2019.

Till 1977, the post of Leader of Opposition did not have constitutional recognition. This post was given on the instructions issued by GV Mavalankar. But in 1977, a law was brought in which for the first time not only the definition of the post of Leader of Opposition was fixed, but it also gave constitutional recognition to this post.

There is no mention of the 10% rule anywhere in this law named ‘Salary and Allowances of Leader of Opposition Act, 1977. It is written in the law that a leader of the largest opposition party will be given the status of Leader of Opposition. This law is for both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Overall, the simple meaning of this law was that the Lok Sabha Speaker or Rajya Sabha Chairman does not have the right to refuse the status of Leader of Opposition to the leader of the largest opposition party, even if that party has less than 10% of the seats.

Earlier in 1968, a sub-committee of Parliament had recommended in its report that the leader of the largest recognised opposition party should be recognised as the Leader of the Opposition. The 1977 law was brought on the basis of this recommendation.

Not only this, the importance of the 10% rule further diminished when the Representation of the People Act was amended in 1985. After this, the right to recognize a political party was given to the Election Commission.

In 2014, the then Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had advised that the issue of recognising a member of the House as the Leader of the Opposition is outside the scope of the 1977 law. On this basis, the then Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan did not give this post to the Congress.

However, before this, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had become the largest opposition party by winning 116 seats. But the then Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, while giving the status of Leader of Opposition to BJP MP Sushma Swaraj, had said that she had got the right to do so under the 1977 law.

Not only this, after the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, Speaker Ram Niwas Goyal gave the status of Leader of Opposition to BJP leader Vijender Gupta. Whereas in that election, BJP was able to win only 3 out of 70 seats in the Assembly.

The post of the Leader of the Opposition is equivalent to that of a Cabinet Minister. The person holding this post is not only the voice of the opposition in Parliament, but also has many privileges and powers.

The Leader of the Opposition is a part of the committees on Public Accounts, Public Undertakings and Estimates. He also plays an important role in Joint Parliamentary Committees and Selection Committees. These selection committees appoint the heads of agencies like CBI, ED, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Central Information Commission (CIC).

The Leader of the Opposition also gets the same salary, allowances and facilities as the rest of the members of Parliament. The salary and allowances given to MPs are decided under the law of 1954. This law was last amended in 2022.

According to this, every member of Lok Sabha gets a basic salary of Rs 1 lakh every month. Apart from this, Rs 70 thousand is given as election allowance and Rs 60 thousand separately for office expenses. Apart from this, when the Parliament session is going on, a daily allowance of Rs 2 thousand is also given.