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Ayodhya debate on Feb. 26

By Our New Delhi Bureau

New Delhi Feb. 18. Parliament began on a contentious note today with the Government and the Opposition parties failing to agree on adopting a unanimous resolution on the impending war in Iraq and an adjournment motion on Ayodhya.

The Government turned down a Congress-led Opposition demand in the Rajya Sabha that a resolution be adopted on India's position on Iraq, saying that it needed ``flexibility'' and ``leverage'' at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Kuala Lumpur.

And after some wrangling behind the scenes and the rejection of 20 adjournment motions on Ayodhya in the Lok Sabha, submitted by the MPs of the CPI (M), the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, it was "agreed'' that a discussion on the subject would be taken up on February 26, immediately after the Railway Budget was presented, while Iraq would be discussed by the Lok Sabha tomorrow.

But even before Parliament met, at the Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary party meeting this morning, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, expressed his view on Iraq.

He is reported to have told his party MPs that "in case the United States goes for unilateral action against Iraq, it will be unfortunate for the international community and the United Nations. And, if, subsequently, the U.N. endorses the American action, it would amount to an erosion in the U.N.'s authority.''

Clearly signalling his Government's disapproval of a unilateral military action against Iraq, Mr. Vajpayee said that such a course would certainly render the U.N. "ineffective,'' even as "it would lose its influence and prestige.''

Afterwards, in the Rajya Sabha, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, made clear the Government position on an Iraq resolution.

While she shared the concern of the members and said the Government was willing to have a full-fledged discussion on the issue, she did not want the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister to be "tied down'' to a parliamentary resolution when they participated in an international forum. "They will place the feeling of the nation before NAM.''

It was the Congress leader, Pranab Mukherjee, who raised the Iraq issue during zero hour in the Rajya Sabha. The Government, he said, should suo motu come up with an Iraq resolution reflecting the opinion of the nation. "We are worried not only about the developments but (the fact) that it will affect our vital economic interests,'' he said adding that the issue must be resolved peacefully. The people of Iraq had suffered enough and India was committed to the Iraq resolution of the U.N. Security Council.

In response to a question by Natwar Singh (Congress), Ms. Swaraj said "the Government's Iraq policy will be in accordance with the people's feelings.''

Most members, including Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Nilotpal Basu (CPI-M) and Suresh Pachauri (Congress) said the unilateral action being planned by the superpower should be "deplored.''

In the Lok Sabha, most of question hour was taken up by wrangles over the adjournment motions on Ayodhya.

The Opposition view was that the Government had been partisan in moving the Supreme Court. The CPI (M) leader, Somnath Chatterjee, described it as a ``diabolical move,'' and the Congress leader, Shivraj Patil, supported the Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, in his view that the Government had dropped its neutrality and was "tilting towards divisive forces.''

The BJP, of course, rejected this, with its chief whip, V. K. Malhotra, saying that the Government was only trying to expedite the matter.

During zero hour, the POTA issue figured. The SP chief warned that the situation in Uttar Pradesh had become "explosive'' and that "it had all the ingredients of a civil war.

'' POTA had been politically misused in the State, he alleged. It was also the case "in Tamil Nadu against the MDMK leader, Vaiko,'' Mr. Chatterjee added.

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