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By Neena Vyas and Javed M. Ansari
NEW DELHI March 22. The President, K. R. Narayanan, has convened a joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, March 26, to consider and adopt the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, a day after the defeat of the Bill on POTO in the Rajya Sabha. The sitting will be held in spite of strong protests from the main Opposition parties, which charged the Government with "misusing" the Constitutional provision instead of trying to evolve a genuine consensus by sending the Bill to a select committee as is normally done in the case of all significant Bills. The Bill has created ripples both within the National Democratic Alliance (the National Conference abstained during voting in the Upper House) and in the Opposition ranks (though the AIADMK supported it). But this evening, it seems that the Government was able to get the NC to assure it of support for POTO. The Government wants to replace the POTO with legislation and after the Bill fell through in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday — 113 members voted in favour of the resolution moved by the Congress against the Bill and 98 against it — a joint sitting is the only option left to it.While the Government is presenting the Bill as proof of its commitment to eradicate terrorism, the Opposition and several civil rights activists have pointed out that a more draconian piece of legislation, the now-repealed Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, was not able to achieve that purpose. It had led to few convictions and wide misuse by police. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, has already conveyed the President's message convening the joint sitting to the presiding officers of the two Houses. The joint sitting will be chaired by the presiding officer of the Lok Sabha, in this instance P.M. Sayeed, Deputy Speaker. The Home Minister will move the Bill and commend it to the House, and there will be a debate and voting at the end of the day. Both sides of the political divide will be gathering their full forces. The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, has already postponed his visit to Russia. Since it will be free seating in the Central Hall, where the joint sitting will be held, voting will be by slips mentioning the division numbers of the MPs. This is only the third time this Constitutional provision enabling a joint sitting to consider legislation is being used. In fact, the Congress MP, Kapil Sibal, has argued that on the previous occasions the joint sitting only helped iron out minor differences related to amendments and specific clauses in the Dowry Prohibition Bill and the Banking Services Commission (Repeal) Bill. The Constitutional provision, he argued, was not meant to be a device to "undermine the authority of any one House". His charge was that pushing through such legislation, on which the polity was divided, could only create further divisions among the people.
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