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Journalism of Courage
The Centre today revealed that it had made up its mind to go in for early elections during the Winter Session in December though ministers, including Prime Minister Vajpayee, had declared that polls would be held on schedule in October 2004.
The revelation was made by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj while replying to Opposition criticism that the government had committed 8216;8216;constitutional impropriety8217;8217; by not proroguing the House and thus preventing the President from making his customary address in the first session of each new year.
The President8217;s address, they said, gave an account of the government8217;s performance and provided Opposition members the opportunity to discuss and criticise the government. 8216;8216;Heavens wouldn8217;t have fallen if the President had made his address. What are you afraid of? Why don8217;t you want us to criticise your performance,8217;8217; asked Shivraj Patil.
Opposition members also expressed surprise that PM Vajpayee had acquiesced to this 8216;8216;impropriety8217;8217;. The PM, who listened to the discussion, did not react. Swaraj said no impropriety was committed and gave two reasons for the decision. First, the government did not prorogue the House as it had made up its mind to go in for early polls. But since the new Lok Sabha could not be constituted before March 31, the government knew that it would have to convene a short session to pass vote-on-account.
The government, she said, had two options 8212; prorogue the House and convene a fresh session or let the Winter Session continue. It opted for the latter as it did not want the President to be dragged into poll politics. Explaining this argument, Swaraj said: 8216;8216;The Opposition would then have accused us of denigrating the President8217;s office, of using him to announce polls.8217;8217; But the argument didn8217;t impress Opposition MPs.
