NEW DELHE: Indian government on Aug.24 put off its plan to ‘introduce the bill delinking religion from politics in the Lok Sabha even as reports said that the ruling party was divided over it and there was little possibility of its smooth passage,
Home Minister S.B.Ghavan told Left Party leaders, who are not ‘Opposed {0 the bills, that discussion on the bills would be deferred in the interest of public debate, according to Somnath Chatterjee, Communist party of India’ (Marxist) leader in the Lower House.
Chatterjee said the home minister would move the motion for consideration of the constitution (both Amendment) bill and the representation of the People Amendment bill in the Lower House and announce the government’s decision to seek wider debate on the issue.
He said the Home Minister has agreed to consider the Left Par lies’ plea for convening a special session of Parliament to enact the two bills.
The government’s decision comes in the wake of stiff opposition to the provision for preemptive disqualification of candidates on grounds of misuse of religion for political ends and empowering state assemblies to ban political parties.
There was sharp opposition to the bills from parties like Janata Dal, Telugu Desam, AIADMK, Muslim league and DMK apart from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which opposed the two bills “tooth and nail,”
The Janata Dal, which was in principle in favor of the objectives of the two bills, said since it was a constitution bill there was need for it, The provision of dis qualification of candidates was fraught with terrible consequences, the party felt. About the other provisions it was ready for further discussions.
Both the CPI(M) and Janata Dal wanted wider debate among people on the issue, Earlier in the day, speaker Shivraj V.Patil announced in the Lower House that the two bills would be discussed Tuesday and Wednesday with voting scheduled for Wednesday.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 27, 1993
