NEW DELHI: A TADA court’s remarks about MPs and the Parliament last week almost set the House on a collision course with the judiciary. In the process, the expected Opposition ‘Onslaught on the government over the hawala scandal was somewhat deflected.

Cutting across party lines, members of both the Houses of the Parliament Said that the remarks by the designated TADA court of Mr.S.N.Dhingra ~ made in his order last week, rejecting the Congress MP, Mr. Kaplanath Rai’s request for permission to attend the Lok Sabha amounted to “a challenge to the dignity and the sovereignty of the House.”

‘The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, and the Speaker, Mr. Shivaraj Patil shared the agony. After an all-party meeting, it was decided that both the Houses of Parliament would pass a strongly worded resolution soon and forward it to be Chief Justice of India, demanding that the derogatory remarks be withdrawn. ‘The hawala issue and the demand for the resignation of the Prime Minister, Mr.P.V. Narasimha Rao, did rock the proceedings, leading to the repeated adjournments amidst never-ending war of words between the Opposition and the treasury benches, but the BJP and the NFLF combine appeared to be working without a coordinated plan, Mr. Rao cooly kept away from both the Houses. In Rajya Sabha, routine business was almost totally blocked, The Opposition, however, permitted the government to present the interim: Railway Budget in the lower House before staging a walk out.

‘The hawala issue will be raised by the BJP again in the form of a motion under Rule 193 which provides for voting after discussion, the leader of the Opposition, Mr, Atal Behari Vajpayee said, The Janata Dal had agreed to support the move. The government, however, prefers a discussion under rule 193 which does not lead to voting and endangers the government.

The Indira Congress leader, Mr. Arjun Singh’s privilege motion against the Prime Minister will be another weapon in the hands of the Opposition. The Speaker last week sent Mr. Singh’s notice for the motion to the PM for his comments as per the rules. ‘The Janata Dal parliamentary party Leader, Mr, Srikanta Jena said a meeting of the NFLE parties will work out the strategy for a much sharper combined attack on the Government. He indicated that the NFLF parties could even support the BJP’s game plan. “In any case, we will insist on ‘No resignation, no House” from now, one wards,” Mr, Jena said.

Last week, the Opposition only managed to stall the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha till a decision on its demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation 6n hawala issue was taken. But in the Lok Sabha, its focus was diverted when some erstwhile socialist MPs charged that the TADA court had questioned the legitimacy of the Parliament.

Article extracted from this publication >>  March 6, 1996