Kashmir killings — All-party meet subdues Cong

Congress sources indicated tonight that the party was likely to desist from disrupting proceedings on the judicial inquiry issue and instead press for a discussion on the subject under Rule 184 which allows for voting. Though this is the thinking among senior party leaders, a final decision will be taken at the meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee tomorrow morning.

At the all-party meeting, convened at a short notice by the Speaker, only the AIADMK and G.M. Banatwala came to the principal Opposition party’s help. It found itself hopelessly outnumbered, with the CPI (M), Nationalist Congress Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal opposing the demand for a judicial probe. Even CPI veteran Indrajit Gupta, who had yesterday endorsed the Congress stand, chose to remain silent at today’s meeting. “We should put our hats together and see what is the best course of action,” was all he could say.

The decision to hold the meeting was taken after a determined Congress forced an adjournment as soon as the zero hour began. The House was reconvened at 2 pm, only to be adjourned for the day after functioning for five minutes.

Rajya Sabha was thrown into turmoil for the second consecutive day today with the Government once again rejecting the demand for a judicial inquiry into the massacre of Amarnath pilgrims and the Congress staging a walkout.

The Government’s rejection came at the end of a day-long discussion in the Upper House on the issue. The discussion was allowed by chairman Krishan Kant after the House erupted into a din during the Zero hour and the Congress demanded the matter be discussed by the members.

Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, while rejecting the demand, asked the Opposition not to politicise the matter, but Opposition leader Manmohan Singh refused to oblige.

The demand for a judicial inquiry was riteirated by other senior Congress leaders like Pranab Mukherjee, after the question hour was over, on the grounds that the Government should reconsider its decision in the backdrop of fresh reports which had appeared alleging lapses by security forces during the Amarnath yatra. He also demanded an immediate discussion since the issue was very important and was supported by other party members in this.

This led to heated exchanges between the Opposition and Treasury benches with the latter resisting the demand for a discussion. Sensing the mood of the House, Chairman Krishan Kant allowed members to make their submission on the condition that they would pass the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Bill today itself. In any case, the Bill was not passed today and is slated for discussion tomorrow.

Jaswant Singh then appealed to members to refrain from freely quoting from newspaper reports which have found fault with CRPF as these are not the “final judgments”. As an inquiry into the incident was on, such references on the floor of the House “would confer upon them a factual veracity,” he said.

The impromptu discussion, however, made apparent that the Opposition was not one in the demand for a judicial inquiry and that while the Congress was being persistent with it, other parties such as the Left, Samajwadi Party were not in favour of it.

CPI leader in the House, J.Chittaranjan, felt that there was no need for holding a judicial inquiry because it would not help resolve the Kashmir problem and suggested that the Prime Minister should instead convene an all-party meeting to deliberate on the lapses and how these could be prevented in future.

Noted advocate Fali S. Nariman (nom) was of the view that judicial inquiry at this moment was not justified both legally and politically since it would come in the way of the administrative inquiry already ordered by the state government. A Judicial probe could be considered after going through the findings of the administrative inquiry, he added. Another prominent advocate-turned MP, R.K.Anand, agreed with him.

The BJP members were of the view that a judicial inquiry would only demoralise the security forces and that the need of the hour was for all political parties to come together in national interest and face the challenges posed to the integrity of the country by the proxy war from across the border.

But senior Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad wondered how could the truth come out when the officials who were responsible for the security lapses that led to the massacre were being themselves asked to probe the incidents.