India News Online » News Analysis » Indian Politics » 

Political affairs

	July 12, 2004

BJP offensive

After stalling parliamentary proceedings and later deciding to boycott all “tainted” ministers, the BJP was all set on July 10 to take its offensive against the UPA Government to streets. Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said : “We will be telling the people about the `tainted’ ministers, the Government’s move to repeal POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act), its attempts to re-falsify and re-distort history and the anti-people and the inflationary budget.”

The BJP, he said, would also be taking up the issue of Congress president Sonia Gandhi “arrogating to herself the role of a super Prime Minister” by becoming the chairperson of the National Advisory Council on Common Minimum Programme, for which the Government has made budgetary allocation. Naqvi charged that Sonia was now enjoying power without responsibility by running a parallel PMO.

Though the opposition parties last week ended their virtual “boycott” of Parliament, NDA clarified later that the “boycott” of five tainted Ministers would continue. They are Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, Coal and Mines Minister Shibu Soren, Minister of State for Company Affairs Prem Chand Gupta, Minister of State for Heavy Industries Taslimuddin and Minister of State for Water Resources Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav. The BJP along with its NDA partners and supporting parties such as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of Andhra Pradesh and the AIADMK of Tamil Nadu took the decision in line with the recommendation of a five-member committee set up for the purpose.

BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said that in the next few days an NDA delegation would meet the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to impress upon him the need to drop the “tainted” Ministers and uphold high values. The BJP is planning to submit yet another memorandum similar to the one already submitted to the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to Singh. She said the Opposition MPs would not put any questions to the “tainted” Ministers, nor listen to their replies in Parliament. She underlined the fact that the party had not given up its protest on this issue but had changed the form of protest.



Congress rejoinder

The Congress party has charged the NDA with behaving irresponsibly. “The desperation of the political opponents was not surprising, their frustration not unexpected. Blinded by arrogance of power, isolated from the people of our country, they did not expect to lose. They lost. More than that, they lost decisively. They and their cheerleaders are busy trying to subvert the overwhelming mandate of our people,” party chief Sonia Gandhi said addressing the first general body meeting of the Congress in Parliament MPs.

The Congress also accused the BJP of running away from any discussion in Parliament and charged that the party was adopting double standard with regard to its interpretation of “tainted” Ministers. On a day when both Houses of Parliament were adjourned following noisy protests by the BJP-led Opposition over the inclusion of “tainted” Ministers in the Manmohan Singh Government, the Congress said the conduct of the BJP showed that it was graceless in defeat.

“The BJP has demonstrated its lack of respect for parliamentary forum and made it clear that it was for a path of confrontation. It is running away from any discussion or informed debate through which concerns of the people can be taken up and people can then be informed of views/position of the United Progressive Alliance Government, its supporting parties as well as the viewpoint of the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance,” the Congress spokesperson, Anand Sharma, said. By being obstructive and negative, the BJP had once again showed’ that it was unable to accept its rejection by people, according to Sharma.

Sonia Gandhi compared this with the “sober and dignified” conduct of the Congress while it was in the Opposition during the last six years, stating that the party was constructive and its members always conscious of duties and responsibilities to the people.

Sonia Gandhi underlined the importance of gearing up the party machinery for the future Assembly elections. She said while elections to the Maharashtra Assembly were just 70 days away, the party had to prepare for Assembly polls in Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand.

Observers believe that the Opposition parties have been trying to raise some trivial issues just to keep themselves in focus. Every Government, including the former BJP led NDA Government, had tainted ministers. Thus there was nothing new as far as the UPA Government is concerned.



Removal of Governors

The removal of four State Governors by the Congress-led UPA Government continues to be a subject of heated debate. While the two Governors in Rajasthan and Bihar have been spared for the moment despite their “saffron (BJP) connections”, four governors in UP, Haryana, Goa and Gujarat have been shown the door. The entire sangh parivar (RSS family) is up in arms over the sackings of Governors for their alleged RSS links. Former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani along with other top leaders have asked the Congress to either confirm the suspicion for the removal of governors or apologise to the RSS. The sacked governors have not shown any regret at their saffron links.

Provoked by Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s statement that “ideological differences” led to the removal of four Governors recently, Vajpayee swore by RSS ideology and declared that none of us (from the BJP) would wish to occupy any high office at its cost. The former Prime Minister charged the Congress with the imposition of a poisonous ideology and challenged it to an ideological debate.

Vajpayee said Patil’s argument was not only unfortunate and condemnable, but also “a challenge for us”. “We believe in our ideology.” It is in conformity with national interest and is in line with the Constitution, he said. “Leave aside Governorship, none of us would like to occupy any high office by giving up our ideology. What is this which is being mentioned as ideology ? What does it mean ?” he asked.

Pointing out that “we swear by the Constitution”, Vajpayee sought to know if it symbolised an ideology. He underlined that he and his party members were patriots who had been “working for years for the country.

The former PM said he did not understand the Congress opposition to the RSS. The RSS was invited to join the Republic Day march past after the Indo-China war in 1962. He claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru justified this participation when Congress leader Subhadra Joshi objected to it.

According to Advani the removal of Governors was an “outrageous assault on the Constitution. At least its spirit has been violated. Whether the letter, too, has been violated has to be determined by a court of law”.

President Abdul Kalam has appointed Governors for Gujarat, Goa, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. A senior Congress leader and former Union Minister, Nawal Kishore Sharma, is the Governor of Gujarat; the former Nagaland Chief Minister, S.C. Jamir, will be the Governor of Goa; A.R. Kidwai, a former Bihar Governor and now Rajya Sabha member, will take up the gubernatorial responsibilities in Haryana; and the former Intelligence Bureau chief and former Governor, T.V. Rajeshwar, will be the Uttar Pradesh Governor.

Meanwhile, a former BJP MP filed a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court challenging the dismissal of the four Governors on July 2. The petition has been filed by B.P. Singhal, brother of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Ashok Singhal.

The petition said: “the four Governors were dismissed in utter violation of law, against the convention, settled norms and parliamentary practices of this greatest democracy of the world. This unceremonious dismissal of the Governors is highly undemocratic and arbitrary and reminiscent of the days when Emergency had been promulgated in this country in 1975.” He said it was significant that none of the Governors was having any kind of complaint or allegation which could have warranted their dismissal.

Home Minister Shivraj Patel had gone on record to say that the ideology of the Governors should be the same as that of the Union Government. This, the petition argued, was never envisaged in the Constitution nor was any such concept voiced during the Constituent Assembly debates when the subject of appointment of Governors was being debated.

The reason advanced by the Government was that the Governors were having affiliation with the Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardcore Hindu organisation. It was pertinent to mention that not only the present Vice-President, but also the former Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, happened to be persons having affiliation with the RSS. The dismissal was illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional and the Union Government had done this purely for political reasons in order to enforce political agenda.



State ministries pruned

In a major political reform, one hundred and thirty-six Ministers, mostly belonging to the Congress, in over half-a-dozen States, were shown the door on July 7, the last day of the Government’s downsizing exercise to meet a Constitutional requirement.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, dropped 22 Ministers, including four of Cabinet rank, two each from the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from his coalition Government. Though it was a tough decision for the Chief Minister, the CM had to do keeping in mind the recent Constitutional Amendment that restricted the size of a Ministry to 15 per cent of the strength of the Assembly. The exercise reduces the number of Ministers to 43 from 65.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also forwarded the resignations of 12 Ministers to the Governor. Punjab, which has a 117-member Assembly, could not have more than 18 ministers. To enable the process of downsizing, the Ministers on June 25 submitted their resignations to Capt. Singh, who forwarded them to the Congress high command.

Capt. Singh had a series of discussions with the party president, Sonia Gandhi, and other senior leaders on pruning the Cabinet. A senior State unit leader said that high command accepted Capt. Singh’s proposal of rewarding the legislators whose performance was good in the recent Lok Sabha polls.The high command has also retained some ministers, in whose constituencies the party lost by a narrow margin.

The Bihar Chief Minister, Rabri Devi, also dropped 17 ministerial colleagues to downsize her Ministry ahead of the July 7 deadline. In Chhattisgarh 17 Ministers had resigned.

The problem is most acute in the north-east. In the seven States that comprise the volatile region, 125 of the nearly 250 ministers had to be axed by the Chief Ministers which resulted in dissensions between the axed legislators and those in power.