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House of antediluvian matters?

G. Srinivasan

EVEN as several important pieces of legislation remain to be taken up in Parliament, the proceedings of the House got disrupted for almost a week with the Rajya Sabha not yet recommencing its normal schedule. The Lower House took up a censure motion move d by the major Opposition party, the Congress(I), on Wednesday. Predictably, this ended today with nothing momentous happening to upset the applecart of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The Opposition has not scored any tactical victory as the issue discussed and the indictment heaped on chargesheeted Ministers now in the NDA, are sub-judice. Though the Ayodhya issue had been put on the backburner soon after the disputed structure was d emolished way back in 1994, its simmering embers were revived by Opposition parties just to embarrass the Government. For this, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, needs to be squarely blamed as he came out with a statement early this month whic h lets the cats out of the bag and boomeranged to the chagrin of the BJP.

While the contents of the discussion on Ayodhya in the Lok Sabha were, by and large, on predictable lines with the charade lapsing into claptrap, the Congress(I) seems to have done its homework well as it fielded a member with literary leanings. Mr S. Ja ipal Reddy did not disappoint in his offensive broadside, sparing not even the high and mighty. He singled out the Prime Minister on his recent statement on Ayodhya, which was not ``a slip of tongue but the slip of mask,'' exposing his so-called ``studie d moderation''. Mr Jaipal Reddy accused the Prime Minister of having lost the ``moral right'' to be in office. Lacing his barbs with learned points, he said liberal intelligentsia and religious minorities now ``felt betrayed'' by Mr Vajpayee as he has co mpleted ``the Pilgrim's progress from hypocrisy to theocracy and divested the office of the Prime Minister of sectarian neutrality''.

Mr Jaipal Reddy's analogy that the Prime Minister has ``mounted the chauvinist Hindutva tiger'' even as ``experienced and elderly people'' have advised him against provoking the tiger which would spring and damage the polity, was not far-fetched. His rem ark that the destruction of the Babri Masjid was ``a colossal crime against our collective covenant of the Constitution'' was a sober and well-thoughout point.

What is apparent in the attack of the Congress is that it has found it expedient to field a scholar who can quote with ease Shakespeare or Dante (Mr Jaipal Reddy cited Dante to state that the hottest spot in hell are reserved for those who are neutral in moral crisis and he quipped that the hottest spot need not be in hell as it is on Earth and that too is occupied by the Prime Minister).

Ultimately, one is led to believe whether Parliament should be used to exchange acrimonious points on antediluvian matters or transact serious businesses that have a bearing on people's myriad problems. In the run-up to the 2001 Budget, let the Governmen t not be distracted on discussing medieval issues even as marginalised people groaning under the impact of globalisation cry out for succour and subvention.