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Lalu’s please-all Rail Budget fails to please Left

	February 27, 2006

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, in the Railway Budget, presented in Parliament on Friday, Feb. 24, did not raise fares and freight and indeed cut AC fares in some categories, but if he had hoped that this would please all political parties, it was not to be so. Opposition from the BJP was expected, but more unpleasant was the reaction of the Left parties. They accused him of presenting a Bihar-centric budget which did not keep in mind the interests of other parts of the country. Fearing that Lalu Prasad Yadav’s failure to extend the Railways proposed eastern freight corridor to Haldia port through Kolkata may cost them dear in the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal, the Left parties threatened to vote against the Railway Budget.



“We don’t accept the freight corridor in this form and if it is not rectified, we will vote against this Rail Budget,” CPI(M) leader in the Rajya Sabha Nilotpal Basu said.



This is the first time that the Left parties have threatened in a language that conveys their readiness to endanger the survival of the UPA Government. On a number of other issues, such as privatisation of airports and India’s vote on Iran, the Left parties had talked tough and even warned that their support should not be taken for granted. But they never threatened to pull the rug from under the feet of the UPA Government.



There are reports that CPI(M) members have informally told the UPA that they would not back-track on their demand and were ready for a confrontation with the Government on the issue. One CPI(M) MP said, “This has been conveyed to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.” Observers say that faced with the Left stance, the UPA Government is actively considering an amendment to the Railway budget to accommodate the Left’s demand for extending the Ludhiana-Son Nagar freight corridor to Kolkata.



Observers note that 23 of the total 55 new trains to be introduced in the next financial year cater to Bihar and Tamil Nadu, which is to have Assembly elections this year. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s intention in favouring Bihar is to rebuild his fortunes in the state which rejected his party in the Assembly elections. In the case of Tamil Nadu, the announcement of new trains is expected to help the DMK-led Front in the state in the Assembly polls later in the year.





Parliament rocked on CBI “misuse”



Last week witnessed parliament functioning being affected severely by Opposition charges of misuse of the CBI by the UPA Government. On February 23, both Houses of Parliament were rocked with the BJP-led NDA accusing the Government of misusing the CBI after a newspaper reported that the Department of Personnel and Training had written to the CBI Director demanding an explanation on why the agency had not appealed against BJP leader L.K. Advani’s discharge in the Babri Masjid demolition case.



BJP members forced repeated adjournments of the two Houses, saying the Government was influencing the CBI and adopting different yardsticks for different cases.



BJP leaders said that in Advani’s case, the Government had sought explanations from the CBI on its handling of the case, but in the Ottavio Quattrocchi case, it had claimed it did not interfere in the functioning of the CBI and was unaware of the decision to defreeze the London bank accounts of the Bofors case accused.



In the Lok Sabha, BJP leader V. K. Malhotra said, the Government’s actions were “atrocious” and “preposterous.” He accused the Government of “deliberately lying” when it said it did not know about the defreezing of Quattrocchi’s bank accounts “But the PMO has written to the CBI to implicate the Opposition,” he said.



In the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh said while Quattrocchi was allowed “to go free”, the Government had sought an explanation from the CBI on why action was not taken against Advani. “This is blatant partisan conduct,” he said. He sought a clarification from the Prime Minister on the issue.



On February 22, the Opposition trained its guns on UPA Chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her alleged involvement in the murky episode of defreezing of Quattrocchi’s bank accounts in London. Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani said that the Italian wheeler-dealer, a fugitive, is no different from Mafia don Dawood Ibrahim.



Raising the issue during zero hour, Advani took exception to the government’s “direction” to the UK authorities to de-freeze Quattrocchi’s London accounts, which the CBI had held to be linked to the Bofors pay-offs. Advani demanded that the Prime Minister explain why Additional Solicitor-General B Dutta was sent to London to give the British authorities permission to de-freeze Quattrocchi’s accounts.



In a hard-hitting speech, Advani said the government had a “soft corner” for Quattrocchi.



But he was interrupted by a chorus of loud protests from Congress members when he mentioned the name of Sonia Gandhi. Despite the Prime Minister being present in the House, Suresh Pachouri, Minister of State for Personnel, stood up to respond to Advani’s posers. The Opposition members then rushed towards the Speaker’s podium and kept up the refrain “PM jawab do”. The Speaker had a tough time restoring order and was forced to adjourn the proceedings.



The Congress deplored the BJP’s “anti-people, anti-democratic and unparliamentary” bid to “stonewall” the functioning of Parliament on “flimsy grounds”. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee observed “it is most unfortunate” and “deliberate obstruction” of proceedings. “I totally condemn the method adopted (by the Opposition),” Chatterjee said as he adjourned the House.



The Government stuck to its stand that it has not been interfering in CBI investigations. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi told reporters on Feb. 23 that the Government had written a letter to the CBI to know about the status of the case, not to interfere.





Left critical of Govt. policies



The debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his Address saw the Left parties continuing with their offensive on the Manmohan Singh Government policies charging that economic growth does not mean economic development. C.K. Chandrappan of the CPI, speaking in the Lok Sabha on Feb. 21, said that India had slipped in the human development index. He said the Government is silent on Land Reforms, the Women’s Reservation Bill and the commitment to provide Minimum Wages to agricultural workers. He described the Government record in the conduct of foreign policy as “dismal.” A day earlier, CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharya said the Government should not take his party’s support for granted.



On the Iran issue, Acharya questioned whether India’s national interest is protected by supporting the US stand on Iran. “Is it not contrary to the national common minimum programme (NCMP),” he said, asking whether India was following an independent foreign policy.





No dual power centres : PM



The Prime Minister replied to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in the Lok Sabha in the midst of a din created by the BJP on alleged misrule of the Government. In his speech, Dr. Manmohan Singh dispelled the notion of two power centres in the Government. He was referring to the BJP allegations in the debate that the Prime Minister’s authority was being marginalised at the hands of UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Dr. Manmohan Singh said he functioned within a set of rules and framework of governance. He questioned the basis of the accusations, saying that the premise might be based on a thinking, “as if we believe in a totalitarian system in some fascist states where authority has to be visibly asserted to command compliance.” He said, “May be those who hurl such allegations think other parties like theirs, allow shadowy organizations to interfere in the work of elected governments. That is not the culture of the Congress.”



Amid the Opposition din, the Prime Minister continued with his speech, touching on issues like foreign policy, FDI, the Supreme Court verdict on Bihar, economy and terrorism and Naxalism.



Dispelling allegations of a pro-US tilt in foreign policy, Singh sought cooperation from all parties to carry on with the tradition of national consensus. “Even as the instruments to achieve our supreme national interests might be flexible to suit particular international exigencies, the values in which they are embedded will remain true for all times,” he said.



On FDI in retail, Singh assured members the larger issue of FDI would be examined in all its dimensions. On the Bihar mess, he said the debate was no longer valid since a stable government was in place. Reiterating his Government’s resolve to firmly deal with terrorism, the Prime Minister kept the door open for dialogue.



In his reply to the Motion of Thanks in the Rajya Sabha on Feb. 22, the Prime Minister strongly disapproved US Ambassador David Mulford’s letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, protesting his criticism of US President George Bush for the invasion of Iraq. But he stopped short of endorsing the Left’s demand for the Ambassador’s recall.



Dr. Manmohan Singh said Mulford’s action was unwarranted, and a departure from diplomatic practice. He said the Ministry of External Affairs had already told the Ambassador to adhere to established protocol and channels of communication and see that such incidents do not recur in future. Reacting to the Left’s demand for Mulford’s recall, Dr. Manmohan Singh said, “I share the sentiments. But my own feeling is that the action we have taken will suffice for the time being.”



The Prime Minister launched a counter-attack on the BJP, pointing out that they had difficulty appreciating the essence of the President’s Address as the NDA had followed a “divisive agenda.” The remark prompted protests and a walkout by BJP members.



Dr. Singh, who outlined an optimistic picture of the economy, made it a point to link emphasis on higher growth to poverty reduction. Listing initiatives that put the common man centre-stage, he said his Government had already launched the process to “soften the harsh edges of extreme poverty.”





Sonia Gandhi supports Govt. stand on Iran, Indo-US N-deal



Congress president Sonia Gandhi has endorsed the Manmohan Singh Government stand on two contentious issues, Iran’s nuclear programme and the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Left parties have been up in arms against the Government on these two issues. Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party in New Delhi on February 21, Sonia Gandhi noted that these issues are under intense public scrutiny and there will be a debate in Parliament on them on Feb. 27.



Sonia Gandhi evoked Dr. Manmohan Singh’s “repeated statement” to drive home the point that “our Government will always give paramount consideration to the protection of India’s short-term and long-term strategic and national interests.”



Referring to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Sonia Gandhi said she was aware that some party workers were agitated that the programme was being propagated as an initiative of the State governments while in reality 90 per cent of the funding was coming from the Centre.



“Had we not been in power, the Act would not be in place. I know the Prime Minister is looking into this, but at the same time, our party leaders and workers must be very active in countering this misleading propaganda,” she said.