The Hindu Business Line : Parliament in 2006 — Some business amid much sound and fury

If Parliament ended 2005 ingloriously with over a dozen members disqualified for accepting bribes, for the august house 2006 was a year of electoral politics being purveyed on its floors.

The Budget session was marked by a prolonged boycott of the Lok Sabha by the Opposition. The divisive issues were the "tainted ministers" question; the row over the Kargil-related purchases and the consequent submission and rejection of the Phukan Commission report that probed the Defence deals; and the row over the Election Commission's alleged "partisan" role and "casteist attitude" in countermanding the Chapra Lok Sabha poll last year. Climaxing the controversy over the Kargil-related defence purchase, the government finally rejected the Phukan Commission Report that gave a clean chit to the former Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, in the deals that figured in the Tehelka expose.

Claiming to be in possession of a letter to the Centre by the Chapra (in Bihar) poll observer alleging that the Election Commission was pressured into countermanding the Lok Sabha poll, the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, demanded the ouster of the then EC chief, Mr B. B. Tandon, and his colleague, Mr N. Gopalaswamy, now Chief Election Commissioner, for what he called their "partisan" role and "casteist" remarks about the community he belongs to. However, the presiding officers of both Houses firmly disallowed any discussion on the role of the well-respected constitutional body.

A week earlier, Mr Lalu Prasad, while making a statement on a train accident near Vadodra, Gujarat, had dwelt on the alleged attack on him by "RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists". He described it as "a murderous attack and an attempt on my life". His statement was short on the human tragedy of lives lost in the train mishap and long on personal pain.

Acrimonious Monsoon session

The monsoon session saw more acrimony. In a shocking incident, some RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and Janata Dal-U members of the Lok Sabha abused each other and came to blows. This compelled the Speaker to warn of "strongest possible action" if there was a repeat of such an incident. The saving grace was that the incident took place during an adjournment and did not form part of the proceedings. The TV cameras of the Lok Sabha channel were thus switched off. Equally fortuitously, as the House was not sitting, the incident could not be expunged and was reported.

Business in both Houses remained affected for long because of the turmoil over the Justice R. S. Pathak report confirming Paul Volcker naming former External Affairs Minister, Mr Natwar Singh, and the Congress party as contractual beneficiaries in the Iraq's oil-for-food scam. The issue was god send for the BJP, caught in a spot over Mr Jaswant Singh's unsubstantiated "mole in PMO" claim. It was during this session that a much harassed Somnath Chatterjee made an impassioned plea to end the stalemate in the Lok Sabha over the issue of the former Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee's letter in which he had virtually questioned impartiality of the Speaker. "Don't prolong the painful chapter," Mr Chatterjee had pleaded.

The last session of the year was marked by considerable acrimony and frequent adjournments over the controversial plea for clemency for Afzal Guru, condemned to death in the December 13, 2001 Parliament House attack case. The desecration of the statue of Dr B. R. Ambedkar in Kanpur and the subsequent violence in Maharashtra sparked protests by BSP members in both Houses. Not to be out-done, Congress MPs joined their BSP colleagues in demanding the sacking of the UP Government and the imposition of President's rule in UP.

Right to Information Bill passed

Amid all this, Parliament during the year passed the epoch-making Right to Information Bill, the controversial Bill reserving 27 per cent seats to OBC students in higher educational institutions such as the IITs, the IIMs and the IISc, and the politically significant Office of Profit Bill among others. Expectedly, the exclusion of minority-run institutions from the purview of the OBC legislation drew charges of "minority appeasement with an eye on UP elections" from the BJP and other constituents of the Natioanl Democratic Alliance.

In the Budget session, in a major push to the financial sector reform, the government introduced two pieces of banking legislation, including one to lift the 10 per cent cap on voting rights to foreign banks acquiring equity in Indian banks. However, any person acquiring more than 5 per cent equity in an Indian bank will have to obtain the approval of the Reserve Bank of India. The Bill also seeks to empower the RBI to specify the Statutory Liquidity Ratio without any floor or ceiling, to give more operational flexibility.

The second legislation amends the Reserve Bank of India Act to remove the floor and upper ceiling of the Cash Reserve Ratio. The Reserve Bank of India (Amendment) Bill also empowers the apex bank to deal in derivatives. Both legislation were referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance after being introduced in the Lok Sabha.

Unfortunately, the main Opposition was absent when such important Bills as the Right to Information, the Patents Amendment Bill and the Prevention of Money Laundering Bill were passed. And it but participated perfunctorily when the Finance Bill, giving effect to all the Budget proposals, was passed in the Lok Sabha. It was absent when the Rajya Sabha returned the Bill. This does not augur well for a democracy — a point stressed both by the Speaker and the Prime Minister during their concluding day remarks.

The sound and fury over the "government's commitment" to introducing the Women's Reservation Bill ultimately signified nothing as it was once again not tabled largely due to total absence of political consensus.

(A former Deputy Editor with PTI, the author is a New Delhi-based freelance writer. Feedback can be sent to rajamanirc@gmail.com)