Gujral Alienation Complete In Ls Fiasco

Farce, comedy, cloak-and-dagger skulduggery and a tragic decline in norms were all on display in the Lok Sabha yesterday. It witnessed ruling party members loyal to Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad heckling and defying Prime Minister I K Gujral. By night, there was talk of the chasm that opened in the House splitting the Janata Dal sooner than later. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowdas supporters solidly backed Gujral in the cabinet.

The heckling by Laloo Prasad backers, joined by some Shiv Sena and Samata Party members, prevented Gujral from moving for consideration the long-pending bill to reserve 33 per cent of seats in the legislature for women. Later, they physically prevented minister of state for law and justice Ramakant Khalap from rising to propose that the bill be taken up for consideration.

 

After Speaker PA Sangma skilfully allowed a long rope to both sides through a tense afternoon and evening, he ruled just before the close of the budget session that Khalap could move that the bill be taken up for discussion. He adjourned the house sine die immediately after Khalap moved the bill, at 7.52 pm. It will now be debated during the monsoon session.

DMK members opposed Gujral, along with about 25 of the 44 Dal MPs. Some SP members too spoke against it but TDP and TMC members seemed to be with Gujral. The Left solidly supported him.

The cabinet, which met soon after Gujrals humiliation, backed his desire to return to the House after the conclusion of private members business, to complete what he hadnt been allowed to do. Textiles minister R L Jalappa was the only one who expressed reservations. In the House, BJP general secretary Sushma Swaraj supported Gujral but most BJP and Congress members remained mute. The importance of the drama was underlined by the presence of all the three former Prime Ministers (Atal Behari Vajpayee, PV Narasimha Rao and Chandrashekhar) who are members of the House through 40 minutes of submissions by members on problems related to their constituencies which interrupted the histrionics over the bill.

The breach in the Dal was clearly related to Laloo Prasads anger at pressure being mounted on him to resign following the CBIs threat to prosecute him for involvement in the fodder scam. There is clearly a power struggle raging within in the party, which will elect a new president soon.

Janata Dal working president Sharad Yadav has become a leading light of the Laloo Prasad camp. In the forefront of the Prime Ministers humiliation yesterday, he openly differed with Gujral on the floor of the House, thundering that the consensus among political parties which the government claimed did not exist. He derided women with hair-cuts, who would take all the seats if there were no reservations.

These two (Laloo Prasad and Sharad Yadav) will destroy the party, remarked a Union minister soon after the incident. Sharad Yadav, who was watching Gujral on the closed circuit television in Jenas room telling the Rajya Sabha that if some sections are not ready, we must make them ready, muttered as he left the room: Iski persuasion ko pursue karenge (We will pursue his persuasion).

Gujral had tried from 3.05 pm till 3.30 (when private members business began) to move that the controversial bill be taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha. He was on his feet for much of that time but was reduced to angrily shouting to an unrepentant Dal MP with a sharp wave of his hand, aap baithiye, main bol raha hoon (You sit, I am speaking).

The members who sought further discussion and consensus-building before the bill was taken up for consideration pressed for quotas among the reserved seats for women from backward castes and from among minority communities.

Finance minister P Chidambaram turned in his seat in the front row to try and calm them and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Srikant Jena tried too, but with no success. Ministers like Jaipal Reddy (information & broadcasting) and Indrajit Gupta (home) looked distraught.

It was when Sangma had sternly ruled that only the Prime Minister would speak and nothing else would go on record that Sharad Yadav had made his thundering intervention. Gujral yielded the floor and Yadav spoke until after 3.30, when members insisted that private members business should begin on schedule.

When a member pointed out that Gujral had been ready to speak and was prevented, Sangma angrily asked, By whom? When the member replied, By members, Sangma retorted: Yes, and mainly by ruling party members, including the working president of the ruling group.

The cabinet met soon after that and decided to press ahead after private members business ended at 6 pm. Constituency matters were raised immediately after and it was only at 6.45 that the womens reservation bill returned to centre stage.

Nitish Kumar, Chandrashekhar and Sharad Yadav insisted that there should be further discussion and provision of sub-quotas before the bill was taken up for consideration. Vajpayee pointed to the situation in the ruling party, calling it a joke.

Swaraj and CPI Leader Geeta Mukherjee, who had chaired the select committee which considered the bill between last years monsoon and winter sessions, pleaded that the bill be allowed to be taken up for consideration. It would only be discussed during the monsoon session in any case and members could move their amendments, they said.