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Parliament impasse : Efforts on to break deadlock |
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Hectic behind-the-scene moves are on to break the deadlock in Parliament that saw continuous disruptions with an aggressive opposition charging the ruling United Progressive Alliance with ignoring its views. Issues like the “tainted” ministers’ inclusion in the Manmohan Singh led-Government, the sacking of some of the governors for their alleged RSS leanings and the delay in the sacking of former Coal Minister Shibu Soren who had been evading an arrest warrant issued by a Jharkhand court, had led to an impasse. The BJP declared that it would boycott the proceedings of parliamentary committees till a satisfactory solution was arrived at.
Both the ruling and the Opposition parties are now hoping for a breakthrough that could happen as early as August 3 when the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee and the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, are scheduled to meet. Advani, who is attending the BJP’s Chintan baithak (brainstorming session) in Goa, will be back in the Capital on August 2. In response to Chatterjee’s letter a couple of days ago, Advani telephoned him and both agreed to meet on August 3.
If the NDA leaders do not relent and stick to their decision to stay away from the committees then the presiding officers may have no option but to go ahead and finalise the composition of the committees to enable them to meet and start the task of discussing the demands for grants of various ministries. The work has to be completed before August 16 when Parliament meets again to adopt the Finance Bill.
The BJP-led NDA and the Centre are apparently working out a formula. One of the options is to expunge from the record Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s condemnation of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and BJP MP V.K. Malhotra’s remarks against Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. This is likely to pave way for the BJP’s participation in parliamentary standing committees.
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was reported to be in favour of ending the confrontation in Parliament. Although parliamentary affairs minister Ghulam Nabi Azad reportedly held talks with the BJP top brass, including Advani and Sushma Swaraj, both the Congress and the BJP kept up their posturing.
JD (U) leaders were of the opinion that, except the BJP and the Shiv Sena, the other NDA parties were not too keen on continuing the strategy of confrontation. Since the JD (U) had to fight the elections in Bihar and Jharkhand as the BJP’s partner it could not afford to annoy it.
The 14th Lok Sabha is to have 25 Standing Committees with the power to summon and examine ministry officials. In addition, there are consultative committees attached to each ministry that advise the Government on a regular basis. The committees, like the Public Accounts Committee, scrutinise spending by the Government.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is yet to make up its mind on whether to withdraw from the standing and consultative committees of Parliament. Taken unawares by the National Democratic Alliance’s decision to boycott the committees, the party of former Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, is still mulling over its future course of action. The TDP is not a member of the NDA and is among the few parties to send the nominees’ list.
The Shiv Sena and the Janata Dal (United) had also sent in their lists of names but after the NDA announced its decision to boycott the committees, they wrote to the Lok Sabha Secretariat asking them to withhold the names.
The NDA decision to boycott all parliamentary committees marks a new low, even measured by the rather lax standards of legislative decorum in India, observers feel. The daily battles inside the lower House can hardly be a justification for allowing parliamentary misbehaviour to plunge to the unseemly levels currently on view. There are two aspects to the present standoff, both unfortunate in the extreme. The first is the boycott by the Opposition of important parliamentary committees, standing as well as consultative. And the second, the shocking disrespect shown to the Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, who was rudely stopped from making a statement.
Standing committees are bi-partisan bodies, which meet in the recess to help Parliament scrutinise budgetary proposals and demands for grants from the various Ministries. The consequences of the boycott of these panels will be far more serious than those arising from such standard oppositional tactics as disruption of the zero hour, walkouts, and slogan-shouting. The boycott, say observers, is both an insult to the institution of Parliament and an abdication of responsibility towards the people.
What the NDA is doing sends out the political message that it is a very bad loser.
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