Date:15/07/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/07/15/stories/2002071504920100.htm

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Issues aplenty for Opposition to take on Govt.

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JULY 14. The Opposition parties will not have to work too hard to find issues to embarrass the Government during the monsoon session of Parliament beginning tomorrow. In fact, they may find it hard to find adequate time during the four-week session to raise all the matters of concern.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's pronouncements on the trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, the reneging on its earlier assurance to abide by the judicial verdict in the Ayodhya case by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and now the ghastly massacre in Jammu are all subjects on which it will be difficult for the Government to find credible explanations.

Besides, the much-flaunted Prevention of Terrorist Act has now been used against an NDA ally, the MDMK, and all that it has been able to say is that the State Government has the jurisdiction and that the law will take its own course. Then the Government's discomfort on the contrariness of its allies on the railway zonal headquarters bifurcation plans, which again is a problem created by the Government.

The Congress' Political Affairs Committee will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to draw up its strategy, according to the Lok Sabha MP, Satyavrat Chaturvedi. The CPI(M) leaders also met today. And both parties expect to coordinate their strategies to make the maximum impact. The detailed strategy is expected to be worked out on a daily basis as the session progresses.

For most of the issues, the Government was itself to blame and for some others it was the spiritual mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the RSS, and its offspring, the VHP, Mr. Chaturvedi said today. ``The issue of national security and the skewed foreign policy which shows the Government's desperation to fall into the laps of Americans without caring for national interest is there for all to see,'' he added. ``There has been troop mobilisation for months and what has the country gained,'' he asked. ``Our foreign policy has been reduced to desperately trying to fall in the lap of the Americans,'' he added.

There is also the view in the Congress — underlined by the recent letter written by the party president, Sonia Gandhi, to the Prime Minister — that the work on relief and rehabilitation of those affected by the Gujarat carnage has been painfully slow and inadequate. ``The Gujarat issue will have to be taken up strongly,'' party leaders said.

The CPI(M) leader, S. Ramachandran Pillai, said: ``The RSS pronouncements on trifurcation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir are dangerous as they threaten the integrity of India.'' There were also several economic issues the party would like to take up — conditions being put on States' share of Central revenue, usurping the right of States to work out their plans by placing conditions and reduction of interest rates on small deposits.

The Left party is also concerned about foreign direct investment in the print media. Besides, the fact that it is vehemently against this, it also sees in this move an attack on the parliamentary system of standing committees — the FDI proposal had been rejected by the standing committee, and yet the Government went ahead.

The Congress also wants to take up the disinvestment issue — the feeling is that many public sector units have been sold for a song — and the question of labour reforms. The view is that while the party has been in favour of reforms, India has its own special problems and cannot and should not blindly follow the Western pattern.

From the Government side, the most urgent legislation will be on electoral reforms against the background of the Supreme Court order and the subsequent follow-up action by the Election Commission. Across the political spectrum, parties are united on the issue of not allowing any institution to encroach on Parliament's right to legislate.

Many other important bills are pending — the Lok Pal Bill and the bill to give women 33 per cent reservation in Parliament — but those seem shelved indefinitely.