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Premature adjournment of Lok Sabha unlikely
By Javed M. Ansari
National Security Guard commandos using minesweepers to locate any hidden explosive at the Parliament House in New Delhi on Friday. - Photo: Shanker Chakravarty
NEW DELHI DEC 14. The Government has been forced to rethink its move to adjourn the winter session of Parliament ahead of schedule. This follows objections from the Opposition parties to the proposed move.
In fact, Thursday's terrorist attack on Parliament, may have actually given a new lease of life to the current session. The Opposition maintains that the attacks have posed a challenge to democracy and adjournment ahead of schedule would send wrong signals.
Earlier in the week, Parliament appeared heading for a premature closure, on account of the stalemate between the Government and the Opposition on the CAG report. The Opposition also appeared willing to accept the idea since they believed it suited them politically.
Leaders of the Congress, the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party believe that had the winter session been curtailed on the coffin scam, it would have helped give greater currency to their campaign on the issue. ``It would have suited us more if the House had adjourned on a note of unresolved crisis on the coffin scam,'' says a senior Opposition leader.
They are, however, still undecided on their strategy on the Fernandes' issue. The Opposition has stalled Parliament ever since the CAG's report was made public, but given the terrorist attack it is now mulling over the manner in which it should take up the issue.
Opposition leaders believe that they have finally hit the Government where it hurts, and given the emotive nature of the coffin scam, they would want to continue the pressure for as long as possible. However, they also realise that the attack on Parliament has changed the focus, and would, therefore, like to assess the public mood before deciding on the strategy to be adopted in Parliament. It is for this reason that the meeting of the Opposition leaders, which was to be held in the Samajwadi Party office this morning has now been postponed to Monday.
The Congress today appeared to tread cautiously refusing to go beyond what it had said yesterday about security and intelligence failure. It also refused to take its criticism to its logical conclusion.
The party spokesperson, Mr. Jaipal Reddy, avoided taking a stand on the possibility of a retaliatory strike across the LOC. ``Only the Government has access to relevant inputs, it is for the Government to consider various aspects before it takes a decision,'' said Mr. Reddy.
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