Date:05/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/05/stories/2006120513981000.htm

National

Pranab may talk it over with Advani

Neena Vyas

Bid to avert impasse in Parliament

BJP walks out of Lok Sabha, keeps off BAC meeting

Next course of action today: Malhotra

NEW DELHI: Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee is expected to talk to Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani in a bid to avert an impasse towards which the Opposition and the ruling benches seemed moving on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party walked out and stayed away from the Lok Sabha in the afternoon and also kept off the Business Advisory Committee meeting. The immediate provocation was that the party was not allowed to raise the issue of the arrest of its president Rajnath Singh (and immediate release) when he was on his way to Singur.

However, the Government countered the BJP charge that the Opposition was not being allowed to have its say. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi pointed out that almost the entire session till now was devoted to discussing issues raised and prioritised by the Opposition. "They [the BJP] moved an adjournment motion on internal security, which was debated; it was they who wanted a discussion on price rise, but when Union Minister Sharad Pawar was responding they did not want to listen."

At the meeting of party leaders in the Speaker's chamber on Monday morning, the BJP was repeatedly asked what issues it would like to raise. Its leaders said they wanted a chance given to Shahnawaz Husain, newly elected MP from Bhagalpur, and that was agreed. The Speaker gave him a chance after Railway Minister Lalu Prasad made a statement on the Bhagalpur bridge collapse.

"They were repeatedly asked whether they wanted to raise any other issue and they said no. Then suddenly they shouted something and began making a noise about Mr. Rajnath Singh's arrest," Mr. Dasmunsi said.

Mr. Dasmunsi strongly countered the BJP charge of interference as he was seen approaching the Speaker. The Minister said it was his business to speak to the Speaker, the Opposition and to all members. He was not interfering, but doing his duty as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.

Earlier, BJP leader V.K. Malhotra told a press conference that Congress MPs would surely have raised the issue in the House had their party president been arrested even briefly.

"All rules were flouted on Monday. The Opposition was bulldozed," Mr. Malhotra charged.