Congress members in the Rajya Sabha on Friday went on a counter-offensive to blunt the relentless attack from the Opposition, which found itself outwitted on tactics and in preparation.
Members of the Opposition appeared caught on the back foot when Chairman Hamid Ansari pointed to Rule 251 and the ruling of April 28, 1987 in not allowing members to seek clarifications after the statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, refuting charges of bribery during the 2008 trust vote.
While Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley and party whip S.S. Ahluwalia sought to know why the convention followed till Thursday was being broken, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI (M) asked why a 24-year-old ruling was being invoked now.
Mr. Jaitley protested stating that the Opposition could not be “gagged” and said the Prime Minister was answerable and should not shield himself behind a new practice. But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal countered him saying that there could be no clarifications on a statement made by the Prime Minister on the Opposition's request and the government responded in the interest of smooth functioning of the House.
“We cannot go by their wishes, what else would satisfy them…? Mr. Bansal said as members on the Congress benches joined the verbal duel. With noisy scenes continuing, the Chairman adjourned the proceedings and the Prime Minister left the House.
Caught unprepared
The turn of events caught the Opposition unprepared as some of its members were later seen dipping into the Rules book. Attempts to raise the issue again led to another bout of verbal clash and final adjournment.
Right from the start of the proceedings, Congress members led by Mani Shankar Aiyar insisted that the House take up a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs even as the Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan said that he permitted the Mr. Jaitley to speak.
After a brief adjournment, Tribal Affairs Minister Kantilal Bhuria led the charge stating that the Opposition was not interested in the discussion, pending since March 15. Even though its members expressed sympathy on tribal issues outside the House, they were not allowing any discussion inside it, he said.
Ruling 173 given in 1987 states that clarifications can be sought only on a suo motu statement by a Minister. On that day, P. Upendra (TDP) sought a clarification from Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Chairman ruled that: “The procedure that we have followed in this case is that you will mention the subject and the Prime Minster will respond. If the Prime Minister makes a suo motu statement, you are entitled to ask him for clarification. Now the Prime Minster's statement is just in response to your question. Tomorrow there is going to be a full-dress debate on Defence. You can raise all these points there and the Minister concerned will reply.”
Rule 251 reads that a statement may be made by a Minister on a matter of public importance with the consent of the Chairman, but no question shall be asked at the time the statement is made
In the Lok Sabha, immediately after Dr. Singh completed his speech, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj wanted to seek some clarification but Speaker Meira Kumar said if the Opposition wanted to raise some issue, it should give notice.
Keywords: Cable162458, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate, cash-for-votes, trust vote, confidence motion, Manmohan Singh government, nuclear deal
No comments:
Post a Comment