The Hindu : BJP ready with strategy if ruling favours Opposition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 23, 2002

Front Page

Front Page

BJP ready with strategy if ruling favours Opposition

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI APRIL 22. The parliamentary deadlock is expected to end tomorrow when the Deputy Speaker and presiding officer of the Lok Sabha, P.M. Sayeed, will decide under what rule the discussion on the Gujarat violence will be conducted in the House.

And the buzz around the corridors of power here today is that if the chair decides in favour of a discussion under Rule 184, the Government could consider bringing in a confidence motion "which would automatically get precedence'' and would also help bring together the doubting Thomases among the allies and supporting parties of the Government as none would like the Vajpayee Government to fall.

Mr. Sayeed made it clear today that in the absence of a consensus in the House and the continuing deadlock — Parliament has been adjourned every single day since the start of the second part of the budget session on April 15 — he has been left with no option but to give a ruling to decide the issue. All political parties across the board have already said that they will accept whatever decision the chair takes.

The Opposition parties have been insisting on a discussion under Rule 184 in the Lok Sabha, which entails voting, while the ruling parties have offered a discussion under rule 193 at the end of which there is no vote. Both sides have quoted rules and precedents to establish that their view is the correct one. Throughout the day, after both Houses of Parliament were adjourned within minutes of assembling, Mr. Sayeed conferred with the party leaders from both sides of the political divide. "There is no consensus and therefore I will give my ruling tomorrow,'' he told reporters, adding "I will go by the rule book. If the rule is clear, clarity will be shown and if the rule has to be interpreted that interpretation has to be demonstrated as the correct one.''

The BJP spokesperson, V.K. Malhotra, made it clear that his party thought a ruling in favour of Rule 184 would be a "bad precedent'' as a State subject ought not to be discussed in Parliament. His other objection is that Gujarat has already been discussed in the first half of this very session and that rules do not permit a discussion on the same subject again under Rule 184.

However, the Congress, the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal have strongly argued that the killing of 800 or more persons, many of them in their homes and in their beds, is a blatant violation of the very basic fundamental right to life and cannot be dismissed as a "State subject.''

It is after the chair's ruling tomorrow that the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha will meet to fix a date for the discussion and allot time. Leaders of the BJP have indicated that if the discussion is to be held under Rule 184, they could ask for allotment of time for the debate "after the important financial business, including the passing of the Finance Bill and the railway budget, is completed.'' That would mean the Government could ward off the debate on the violence rocking Gujarat till the last few days of the session.

It is also being said that the confidence motion strategy would be adopted only if the Government fears that all its political friends, especially the Telugu Desam Party and the Trinamool, may not go along with the Government on the voting under Rule 184. These parties today indicated that much would depend on the exact wording of the motion and they also categorically stated that in any case they would make their stand clear in the House — both are insisting that the Gujarat Chief Minister be removed. "We are steadfast in our stand," the TDP parliamentary party leader, K. Yerran Naidu, said. The BJP has already made some rough Lok Sabha arithmetic and has come to the conclusion that even minus the TDP and the Trinamool, it could comfortably win a vote, provided the Bahujan Samaj party votes with it.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

Stories in this Section

BJP ready with strategy if ruling favours Opposition

Delhi rejects `foreign interference'

Four killed in Gujarat

Gujarat won't have long-term fallout: Sinha

Chandrika holds talks with Jaswant

Mayawati govt. by this week?

Punjab cancels 639 PSC recruitments

VC sacked

ISD rates set to fall

Pearl case trial begins

Gulshan case