Front Page   

Govt. claim of consensus on poll reforms misleading: Cong.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 25. While by and large, political parties were not unhappy that the ordinance on electoral reforms had been promulgated, they did take different positions and blame the Government for not showing enough respect to the President, for falsely suggesting that the ordinance had the approval of all the parties, and for not taking the correct course of routing the legislation through Parliament.

On Saturday night, the President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, signed the ordinance to give effect to the proposals in the bill to amend the Representation of the People Act (RPA). He had asked the Government for some clarifications, but when the Cabinet decided that the ordinance should be sent back to him "as it is'' he had no option but to sign it.

The ordinance will nullify the effect of the Election Commission's order arming Returning Officers with powers to disqualify candidates for giving false or incomplete information on their assets and liabilities, and criminal records.

The Bharatiya Janata Party was naturally happy that the ordinance had been promulgated after the initial shock it suffered when the President asked for some clarifications.

The impression given by the Government that the Congress had endorsed the amended RPA was "incorrect and misleading,'' the party spokesperson, Anand Sharma, said. The Congress had differed with the Government at the all-party meeting on the subject and on August 16, it had communicated its views. The Congress favoured disclosure of both assets and liabilities and criminal record, if any, of the candidates while filing nomination papers in line with the views of the Supreme Court and the Election Commission. It had only disagreed with the EC's order empowering the Returning Officers to disqualify candidates, as the officers would have no means of ascertaining the truth.

Many party leaders were unhappy that failing to appreciate the impossible "logistics'' of the earlier order of the Commission and the Supreme Court order, the perception among the people was that the politicians had got together to defeat the noble purpose of the court and the Commission to cleanse the political system.

Said the CPI (M) leader, Somnath Chatterjee: "All political parties had agreed to the form of legislation. I take it that the ordinance was drafted on the basis of discussions the Government had with the political parties." However, he felt that if the President had sought certain clarifications, the Government should have certainly responded, for he had every right to ask for information and clarifications.

Mr. Chatterjee also pointed out that somehow a wrong impression had gained ground that all the politicians were crooks and had joined together to prevent the system from being cleaned. He also felt that the "logistics'' of every candidate filing numerous affidavits before the Returning Officers relating to their assets and liabilities was not practical. And that in no way would help the people get information. Also, in a party system, more than 90 per cent of the vote was cast on party lines, and it was for the parties to ensure that the right kind of people were nominated as their candidates. "I resent the assumption that all politicians are crooks,'' he said, welcoming the ordinance.

On this, the CPI had a slightly different view: the general secretary of the party, A. B. Bardhan, was against the pushing of the ordinance. Irrespective of the shared views of the political parties on this subject, he felt that the Cabinet should have waited to pass the bill through Parliament. The party national secretary, D. Raja, felt that the BJP was to blame for the mess as "caught in its own petrol pump scandal it failed to get this important legislation through in the monsoon session.''

UNI reports from Kolkata:

The Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, said that the reported consensus on the electoral reforms ordinance was ``untrue'' as her party had already objected to it.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• SC to hear presidential reference today
• Former Karnataka Minister kidnapped
• Controversy over: Modi
• Govt. claim of consensus on poll reforms misleading: Cong.
• India, Bangladesh to activate all task forces: Sinha
• Throw Modi Govt. out: Sonia
• Tehelka clears Jaya Jaitly
• Minister escapes unhurt
• Inflation crosses 3 p.c.
• Woman killed in shelling
• Ban on LTTE to go

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu