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All-party meet today

By Javed M. Ansari and K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI APRIL 18. With no signs of an early end to the four-day impasse in Parliament, hopes are now pinned on the all-party meeting summoned by the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, P. M. Sayeed, tomorrow.

Significantly, the meeting will be attended, among others, by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi.

There was a glimmer of hope this morning following a suggestion from the Congress to consider rewording the resolution to facilitate a discussion on Gujarat. Pranab Mukherjee made the suggestion at a meeting convened by the Rajya Sabha Chairman, Krishan Kant, and a similar suggestion was made by Shivraj Patil at the meeting of the Opposition leaders, convened by Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI (M). But the proposal was shot down by both the Government and the Opposition parties.

By the end of the day, both sides were back to square one. The Opposition reiterated its demand for a discussion under Rule 184 in the Lok Sabha. "There is absolutely no question of diluting our demand and we are prepared to face the Government's intransigence'' Mr. Chatterjee said.

The CPI(M) leader also spoke to Ms. Gandhi earlier in the day to impress upon her not to dilute the stand taken by the rest of the Opposition. Senior Congress leaders were, however, quick to point out that there was no question of the Congress backing out at this stage. "We stick by our demand for a discussion under Rule 184, there is no difference of opinion among the Opposition parties on this, '' the Congress spokesman, Jaipal Reddy, said.

The Opposition put the onus on the Government for the current deadlock and pointed out that the Prime Minister had not taken any initiative to resolve the deadlock and that he was continuing with the aggressive posture he adopted at the BJP's Goa national executive.

The Congress also targeted Mr. Vajpayee and referred to his absence from the Lok Sabha on all the four days. ``It is deplorable that he has chosen not to face Parliament or initiate steps to help break the stalemate'' Mr. Reddy said. The impasse was continuing because the Government did not enjoy the support of the majority on the Gujarat issue, and that was why they were not prepared to discuss it under any rule, he alleged.

The Government too stuck to its guns, and opposed a discussion on Gujarat either through an adjournment motion or under Rule 184. It was, however, prepared for a discussion under Rule 193 which does not entail a vote. The argument was that a substantive motion on the affairs of a State Government would set a wrong precedent.

The NDA meeting, attended by almost all the allies including the Trinamool Congress and the Janata Dal (United), criticised the Opposition stance as a result of which important business such as discussions on the demands-for-grants for the Ministries of Home, Defence and External Affairs could not be taken up. The Lok Janshakti Party chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, had informed of his "inability" to attend the meeting as he was away, the BJP spokesman, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said.

Meanwhile, the All-India Anna DMK Parliamentary Party adopted a resolution demanding the immediate resignation of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, to ensure that normality was restored in the State. The meeting, chaired by the Parliamentary Party leader, P. H. Pandian, endorsed the stand of the party general secretary and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, on the issue.

In a related development, the lone SAD (Amritsar) MP in the Lok Sabha, Simranjit Singh Mann, opposed the adjournments and appealed both to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to resolve the stalemate. It was important for Parliament to debate the "genocide'' in Gujarat and take firm action against the perpetrators of ``this inhuman and heinous'' crime.

He also demanded that Mr. Modi and his partners be tried for what he called ``acts of genocide.''

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