Cong Bid To Spike Debate On Sukh Ram Issue

Santosh Mohan Dev, the Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, is understood to have conveyed to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Srikanta Jena that a number of Congress members were intent on raising these issues. He told Jena that, while he would try and restrain these members, he hoped that UF constituents did not seek to embarrass his party during the session.

Dev spoke of the need for some sort of "floor coordination" between the various groups that were supporting the government, even if they were not participants in the ministry. The Congress and the CPI(M) are the two important groups that support the government, guaranteeing its survival, without participating in it.

 

The United Front's constituents were slated to decide their strategy at a meeting last night. Some leading Janata Dal members were expected to try and persuade their Left partners not to raise the Sukh Ram issue too stridently.

They would also try to persuade their partners from the TDP not to raise the Almatti dam height issue during the session. The controversy over the dam has been the most unsettling of all the problems Gowda has had to face in the last twelve weeks.

The situation is tricky for many of the United Front parties since they are committed to supporting this government but cannot allow their respective political bases to be eroded by the public perception of weak stands on key portions of their agendas.

"We have not sold ourselves to anybody," explained CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee. The Sukh Ram affair "effects a vital sector of the country," he said, and "will be raised in a big way." He added that his party would ask the government to ensure that action was taken to adequately deal with it.

Significantly, neither he nor such CPI(M) MPs as Nilotpal Basu, who has vociferously attacked the Rao government on telecom-related issues, mention the Congress when talking about taking up the Sukh Ram issue in Parliament.

Left members appear likely to pitch their attacks at Sukh Ram and wrongdoings in the telecom ministry specifically, rather than at the Congress or the Rao government in general. They are also likely to pitch the intensity of their attacks according to the ferocity with which the BJP strikes.

The BJP is unlikely to concentrate entirely on the Sukh Ram issue, since it would want to focus on such issues as the deaths of pilgrims to the Amarnath cave. Owing to the proximity of the UP elections, the BJP would also want to try and seize the initiative on obtaining statehood for Uttarakhand, by insisting that the required legislation be introduced immediately at the beginning of the session.