NEW DELHI: A Bhartya Janata Party (BJP) sponsored no-confidence motion against the one-year old Narasimha Rao government was admitted in the Lok Sabha on the opening day of parliament session on July 8.

The motion will be taken up for discussion on July 15-16, speaker Shivraj Patil, while admitting the motion, announced.

The one-line motion tabled by Jaswant Singh of BJP says, “this house expresses its want of confidence in the council of ministers.” The speaker had received a number of no-confidence motions tabled by the leaders of National front, CPI, CPI-M, and other parties. Since Jaswant Singh’s motion had secured first place in the ballot, Patil put it to vote,

As “not less than 50 members” stood up in favor of the motion, the speaker admitted it.

Almost the entire opposition stood up in support of the motion. They included SJP leader, Chandra Shekhar, Somnath Chatterjee (CPI-M), Inderjit Gupta (CPT) and V.P.Singh (Janata Dal).

With opposition parties closing ranks on the issue of pressing a no-confidence motion, the going is likely to be rough for the one year old Narasimha Rao Government.

Opposition parties gave enough inkling recently of burying their differences to launch a concerted attack on the Government in the two Houses. The new thinking in the opposition parties was best reflected in the unanimity on two issues pertaining to the no-confidence motion: that they would support the motion irrespective of which party’s notice is taken up first and that they would press it only towards the end of the session.

A top Bharatiya Janata Party leader said it would merely be “childish” to keep away from a motion on the plea that some other party had moved it. The similar sentiments were echoed by the National Front and Left Front leaders. Ram Vilas Paswan, Deputy Leader of the Janata Dal Parliamentary Party, and Somnath Chatterjee, Leader of the CPI-M in the Lok Sabha, said they would not be bogged court in “technicalities.” “We are concemed with the failure of the Government and for us the issues are more important than whose motion comes first,” Paswan said.

It was certain that L.K.Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and George Fernandes (Janata Dal) would try to bring opposition parties more close on major issues, Both have been in favor of floor coordination between opposition parties. Fernandes was of the opinion that to press home their point all opposition members should stand together as and when the notice for the no confidence motion was taken up.

The thinking that the motion should be pressed towards the end of the Session has emerged FROM THE REALIZATION that opposition parties would be left with lite ammunition to harass the Government if the motion was defeated early, Opposition leaders feel that they should first press those issues on which there was near unanimity between them like the stock scam and the Bofors controversy. Both the issues were too big to be clubbed with other matters, they feel.

The no-confidence motion subsequently would give opposition parties another opportunity to raise these issues.

However, there are some issues which are likely to show differences between opposition parties, For instance, the NF-LF combine is determined to raise the issues of Kumher violence and the Bhilai firing in the BJP ruled Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively, On the other hand the BJP is certain to highlight the West Bengal Government’s role in the “transfer” of Tin Bigha like the instance of the police firing on the protestors, As Somnath Chatterjee put it: “We will highlight our differences with the BJP in the debate but it can’t be helped if the motion stands in the name of the BJP.” Before the motion is taken up, an important event during the session will be the election of the President, which is scheduled to take place on July 13. The ruling of Congress nominee, Dr.Shankar Dayal Sharma, is expected to win comfortably. His main rival is Prof. G.G. Swell, who is being backed by the BJP and the NF,

On the stock scam, opposition parties are likely to press for the resignation of the Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, asking him to own “moral responsibility” for the scam, Price is another issue which is expected to bring them closer.

A formal decision about strategy is likely to be taken by opposition parties, The executive committee of the BJP Parliamentary Party is scheduled to meet soon. It will be followed: by the general body meeting of: the Parliamentary Party.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992