The Hindu : Parliament time running out as impasse continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 18, 2002

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Parliament time running out as impasse continues

By Javed Ansari

NEW DELHI APRIL 17. The impasse in Parliament over the Gujarat issue continued for the third consecutive day today, with both the Houses being adjourned without transacting any official business.

The Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, P.M. Sayeed, has called a meeting tomorrow of the floor leaders of the parties in the House in a bid to hammer out a solution. According to sources, unless an early end to the impasse is worked out, there will be very little time left to transact all the legislative and financial business scheduled for the remainder of the session.

During the current reconvened budget session, the time available to transact business is 120 hours. But Parliament has been unable to transact any business in the last three days and, with about 52 hours gone for question hour and zero hour, the Lok Sabha has only 67 hours left for official business, including for the passage of the Financial Bill and the railway budget.

The Government is not willing for a discussion on Gujarat under a substantive motion which, if adopted, would record Parliament's disapproval of the handling of the Gujarat situation by the Narendra Modi Government. The Opposition parties, on the other hand, are unrelenting in their demand for a discussion under Rule 184 on the Government's handling of the communal violence.

The Opposition has made it clear that the bottom line for any breakthrough will be a discussion under Rule 184 so that the issue could be debated by the House. "We have already shown the desired flexibility and have scaled down our demand from an adjournment motion to a discussion under Rule184. The Government must agree to a discussion,'' said the Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Shivraj Patil.

The main reason behind the Government's insistence on avoiding a discussion and a vote on Gujarat is to avoid the embarrassment of some of its allies, principally the TDP, voting against it. By stalling a discussion, the Government also appeared to be buying time to work on its allies and bring them round. The BJP's managers are reportedly in touch with the JD(U), the Lok Janshakti and some of the disgruntled elements in the Samata Party.

The Government, however, appears to have made little headway as far as the TDP is concerned.

The leader of the TDP parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, Yerran Naidu, who has been trying in vain for the past three days to raise the Gujarat issue and the question of resignation of Narendra Modi, has written to the Lok Sabha Secretariat demanding a discussion on both the issues.

As soon as the Lok Sabha assembled this morning, agitated Opposition MPs were on their feet demanding a discussion on Gujarat.

They were supported by the TDP MPs who also stood up to support the demand. Mr. Naidu repeatedly tried to draw the attention of the Deputy Speaker, but his voice was drowned in the ensuing bedlam. Several BJP MPs tried to divert attention by raising slogans against Sonia Gandhi. Minutes later, members belonging to the Samajwadi Party raised slogans against the Government, and the Left and the Congress MPs lent vocal support. Sensing the mood of the House, the Deputy Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

In the Rajya Sabha, trouble erupted soon after the former Gujarat Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, took the oath. The Opposition MPs raised a din, taunting him about the developments in his home State.

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