Much has been written about the fact that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s record-breaking second term as presiding officer is part of a message of continuity being reinforced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and yet, Mr. Birla’s tenure has seen individualistic flourishes as the Parliament’s keeper of records as well as a record-breaker.
He went from being a back-bencher in the large Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ranks in Parliament since 2014 to breaking the long-held record by Balram Jakhar of being elected Lok Sabha Speaker for two successive terms.
This rise has seen other records being broken as well — in the very first session he presided over as Speaker, in 2019, all first-time members got an opportunity to speak, and during the first session’s Zero Hour, members raised 1,066 subjects — a record for any one session in the history of the Lok Sabha.
His tenure also saw a record number of Opposition MPs, 100 in number, being suspended in the Parliament’s Winter Session of 2023. Productivity reached sky high, but the least number of Bills were referred to Parliamentary Standing Committees.
He is the Speaker who oversaw the shift from the old Parliament building to the new one. He also sought out Pramila Bisoyi, a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP who was fluent only in Odia, and arranged a Hindi-to-Odia translator for her to overcome her hesitancy in speaking.
Mr. Birla, born in 1962 in Kota, Rajasthan started early in public life, having been active in student politics in school, and later as district president in the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP, and still later serving as the State unit president of the outfit. He first entered the Rajasthan Assembly in 2003, repeating the feat twice more before contesting his first Lok Sabha election from the Kota parliamentary segment in 2014, holding on to the seat for a third term in the current Lok Sabha.
Known for his philanthropic work in his constituency, Mr. Birla, despite the Treasury having an overwhelming majority in his previous term, presided over a turbulent period of dealing with a pandemic, the construction of a new Parliament House, and a truculent Opposition. With the numbers more evenly balanced in the 18th Lok Sabha, it will likely be a tougher gig for Mr. Birla this time around.
