Protests against NDA 'code of conduct'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 3. The need for ``norms'' to help in the smooth functioning of the 24- party National Democratic Alliance suggested by the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi - and approved by the Prime Minister at the party's recent national executive committee meeting - are now to be adopted as a ``code of conduct'' by NDA members, but already protests are being heard that more than the ``other'' NDA members, it is the BJP which has been guilty of flouting the ``canons of coalition politics''.

Although all NDA members - barring the Shiv Sena which was absent - ``unanimously'' approved the August 1 resolution setting up a four-man committee to draft a ``code of conduct'' for the NDA, several constituents of the alliance are expressing their unhappiness.

``Coalitions can be run on trust and mutual understanding, not under rules and regulations (kanoon se nahin chala sakte),'' Mr. Mohan Prakash, spokesperson for the Janata Dal (United), said today. The coalition ``dharma'' (or code) should be followed by all constituents, he insisted, perhaps hinting that the leading party may itself be guilty. He pointed out that the JD(U) had not spoken out of turn, it had always adhered to the coalition `dharma'.

During the Manipur crisis, the Samata Party was clearly at odds with the BJP publicly charging that the latter was instrumental in bringing down its Government in the State. ``How can the BJP give us sermons on the dharma of coalition politics?'' a Samata leader said.

Taking note of the rumblings against the proposed code coming from its partners, the BJP spokesperson, Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said the four-man committee set up to draft the code - Mr. Sikander Bakht (BJP), Mr. George Fernandes (Samata Party), Mr. Arjun Charan Sethi (Biju Janata Dal) and Mr. Murasoli Maran (DMK) - had three leaders from the ``allies'' and only one from the BJP.

He added that the draft code of conduct would be placed before a meeting of NDA leaders, who would then accept the code after making any changes they may wish to.

Once the leaders of the NDA were to accept the code, naturally the NDA would expect all members, all Members of Parliament of the parties constituting the NDA to fall in line.

But this is an argument that certainly does not appeal to most MPs, no matter what their leaders may have in mind. How can the rights of MPs to raise issues on public importance be curtailed simply because it may not suit a ruling party? Moreover, MPs of these parties will naturally be guided by their own leaders who may be (many of them are) outside Parliament.

Other MPs pointed out that even the party leading the coalition had consider the directions from the RSS, and that ``this mother organisation'' of the BJP could not be reined in by any code of conduct.

It is emphasised that the NDA has not yet been consulted on the PMK's ``re-entry'' into the alliance, though the Prime Minister himself stated this would be done, nor has the issue of a possible ``re-entry'' of the Trinamool Congress come up at any meeting. No NDA party was consulted on Mr. Ajit Singh's entry into the Cabinet. Is his party the Rashtriya Lok Dal now a member of the NDA? Nobody knows.

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