The Hindu : The invited and the gate-crasher

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 20, 2002

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The invited and the gate-crasher

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI APRIL 19. Who is or who should be invited for an all-party meeting convened by the presiding officer of the Lok Sabha? This question arose today when it became apparent that most of the ruling coalition partners of the National Democratic Alliance Government — more than 20 of them — were not invited. And one who came had gate-crashed.

There is a precedent that when the Chair calls an all-party meeting, the Leader of the House (the Prime Minister) and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister (the chief whip of the Treasury Benches), represent "all those in Government,'' the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson and whip, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, told the press today. That explained, he added, the absence of parties such as the National Conference, the Janata Dal (United), the Lok Janshakti, the Akali Dal, the DMK, and so on from the all-party meeting held here today to try and break the deadlock in Parliament.

Why was the Samata Party represented? Well, Raghunath Jha, a Samata Party MP, "just walked in and attended. How could anyone tell him not to", was Mr. Malhotra's response. But political observers feel that the Samata Party's presence was to shore up the Government side.

And why was the Trinamool Congress Party absent, for it should have been invited as it did not have a representative in the Government? That may be because the Trinamool Party absented itself, was the BJP's explanation.

And of course, the Telugu Desam Party leader, K. Yerran Naidu, attended as he was duly invited, not being part of the Government.

The Lok Sabha secretariat claimed there was an unwritten but established practice to invite leaders of "all the Opposition parties that have two or more MPs in the Lok Sabha'' but when it comes to the Treasury Benches, only those who are not in Government are invited. All the other parties are represented by the Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, "who is the chief whip.''

But, as everyone knows, the NDA is not one entity, and there is no NDA whip. It is a conglomerate of about 24 parties with their own whips, not bound by the whip of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister. And, on the Gujarat issue, the "allies'' have been speaking in voices different from that of the BJP. But today they were not there to articulate their positions.

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