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Parliament session : Stormy days ahead

	June 07, 2004

There are clear signs that once the dust has settled over the swearing-in of new MPs, Parliament will be back to its routine business-slogan-shouting, walkouts and levelling of charges against each other by politicians. A defeated and badly wounded BJP is all set to attack the Congress-led coalition. A beginning has been made by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) by marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan in a delegation and presenting a protest memorandum to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on the appointment of what the BJP calls “tainted ministers” in the Manmohan Singh government. The BJP has made its intentions clear-that it will raise a hue and cry over the induction of such ministers facing chargesheets in various cases. Most of them are from Bihar and nominees of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav. The RJD leader is not the one to be cowed down by the BJP offensive and will face the challenge head on.

This week will see the address to the joint session of Parliament by President A.P. J. Abdul Kalam which has to be passed later. The voting will give an indication of the number of MPs supporting the Manmohan Singh government.

As was widely expected, Marxist veteran Somnath Chatterjee was unanimously elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha and has a tough task of controlling the opposition which has enough numbers to stall the House proceedings. The name of Chatterjee was proposed by the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) leader Sonia Gandhi and seconded by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee. His candidature was supported by NDA leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee and seconded by Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani.

The BJP is yet to make up its mind on the nominee for the post of Deputy Speaker, for which the Akali Dal has staked its claim. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has to balance the requirements of the economic reforms and the demands of the Left combine which wields sufficient clout. The first signs of rumbling can be already heard over the issue of airports privatisation with the trade unions marking their protest, not satisfied with the Minister’s assurance on protection of workers’ rights. Similarly, the Left is not too happy at the induction of tainted ministers in the government some of whom may face jail term if proved guilty. The argument by the Prime Minister that there was no need for any one to resign unless proved guilty is not very convincing as the government would be in the dock and its image dented if any of the ministers is convicted.

In the coming days, the opposition is also bound to question where exactly the power lies-with the Prime Minister or Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson of the United progressive Alliance (UPA).



Protest march

On June 3, the NDA and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Members of Parliament (MPs), led by the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, and the NDA convener, George Fernandes, marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan protesting the “criminalisation of politics” and demanding the removal of charge-sheeted Ministers in the recently formed Ministry headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Among the Ministers they targeted were the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mohammad Taslimuddin, Jai Prakash Yadav, M.A. Fatmi, Prem Gupta (all RJD), Shibu Soren (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) and Jagdish Tytler (Congress). The name of Tytler was included in the list at the behest of the Akali Dal for his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.

The NDA apparently chose to ignore the fact that the Vajpayee Ministry too had a number of ministers who held significant portfolios and who were also chargesheeted. For example, L.K Advani. Despite being charge-sheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case, he held a prestigious position as Deputy Prime Minister. And now, ironically, he is heading the camp of the MPs who want ouster of ministers who have allegedly criminal background. George Fernandes who was the Defence Minister in the Vajpayee government resigned from the Cabinet after the Tehelka tapes episode only to come back even before the Commission of Inquiry had completed its task.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections the NDA had fielded 78 people with criminal records, with the BJP accounting for 49, the Janata Dal (United) 15 and the Shiv Sena 14. The Congress Party has said, that those who have moved to lodge a protest with the President against the inclusion of “tainted” Ministers in the UPA Government and seek their removal should themselves “do some soul-searching.”

A delegation of 11 opposition MPs met President Kalam and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention to take up the issue with the Prime Minister. They sought removal of the “tainted” Ministers “in the larger interest of Parliamentary democracy, public interest, national security and norms of probity in public life.” The memorandum said: “The profile of some of the Ministers clearly shows that for the sake of power, sound democratic traditions have been given a go-by. Proceedings in none of the criminal cases mentioned against the Ministers have been stayed by any court. There is no such mention as well in the affidavit filed along with the nomination papers.” It gave details of the cases registered against the Ministers, including the FIR numbers and the police stations where they were registered.

Besides Advani and Fernandes, the 11-member delegation included BJP leaders, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Maneka Gandhi, M. Jagannath of the TDP, Arjun Charan Sethi of the Biju Janata Dal, S.S. Dhindsa of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Chandrakant Khaire of the Shiv Sena and P.C. Thomas of the IFDP.

BJP spokesman Jaitley said that whereas there had been an outcry against the criminalisation of politics, this was the first example of people involved in “pure crimes” being inducted into the Government. When it was pointed out that even the NDA Government had “charge-sheeted” Ministers, he said the Ministers belonging to the United Progressive Alliance had not been charge-sheeted for political agitations or trade union activities but had been charged with corruption, abuse of power, mafia-related crimes, kidnapping and murder.

The Congress has questioned the legitimacy of the BJP in claiming a moral high ground on the issue and said the UPA would deal with the attack by the Opposition in Parliament. “This step is clearly not a demonstration of any principled opposition but an act of hypocrisy. We can understand their frustration over being rejected by the people; surely they are not feeling good,” Congress party spokesperson Anand Sharma said, adding that the move also reflected the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “double speak and double standard.”



Criticism of CMP

In a frontal attack on the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the new Congress-led coalition government, the NDA has said it made “fantastic promises” without specifying how they are going to be funded, particularly job creation. The CMP was made hurriedly after the elections. It makes lot of promises (for economic development). But there is no clarity on where from the funds will come,” former Finance Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh, told a press conference. While wishing his successor P Chidambaram all the best, Singh questioned how the new government sought to generate additional revenue to carry out higher public investments while reining in fiscal deficit.

Claiming that the economy fared well during NDA rule, he said : “Fiscal deficit was at 4.6 per cent of GDP, less than the revised estimate. Revenue deficit was lower at 3.5 per cent with revenue collection for the first time exceeding the budget target.” Higher spending promised by the CMP should be accompanied by higher revenue generation, he said.



Foreign origin issue

The BJP has made it clear that it would pursue the issue of foreign origin irrespective of personalities involved. Asserting this, party President Venkaiah Naidu said : “Sonia Gandhi is nowhere in the picture. Issue is of foreign origin. We are very clear. That is our conviction today, tomorrow, day after tomorrow. Irrespective of Sonia, we will pursue this issue.” Even if tomorrow some American comes here and wants to become President or Prime Minister, we will pursue it,” Naidu said in a TV channel interview. Asked if the BJP failed in its plank of warning the country against “electing” a foreign born Indian as “Prime Minister”, Naidu said : “Going by the argument and propaganda of others, I think that we should have focused more on that issue, which we have not.” Dismissing suggestions that Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s role in Gujarat violence cost the party dearly, he said : “The campaign against us has cost us some votes. Nobody is denying that.” The BJP chief conceded that the party was overconfident that people would vote for it because of its good work. He admitted that the party was in a state of shock and disbelief over election results.