Shock for PM again

But BJP members Satish Agarwal and Vijay Kumar Malhotra stuck to their position that the statutory resolution they’d moved earlier in the day, disapproving the ordinance, must be put to vote.

With the Congress benches empty of members attending the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Calcutta, the government knew it was hopelessly outnumbered. It did not press for a division of heads in the voice vote.But the government’s embarrassment did not end there. Minister of State for Home Maqbool Dar was also forced to withdraw a Bill on private security guards and agencies, when the BJP and the Left parties came together to block the move in the Rajya Sabha.

Dar said, however, that he was deferring the Bill for three days and would bring it back in reinvigorated form, having taken into account the fears of the House.

But the government’s inability to manage business was so glaring that at one point, when the clock was beginning to strike 5 pm, it couldn’t even manage to postpone the discussion for another day. The Leader of the Opposition and BJP member Sikander Bakht got up to say that his party wanted the House to sit until the motion was thoroughly discussed.

Deputy Chairman Najma Heptullah, overruling the government, allowed the extended discussion, but she could be heard saying in an aside to JD member Jaipal Reddy that the government better get more MPs to fill the treasury benches if it wanted to pass the amendment.

So even as MPs like Parliamentary Affairs Minister Srikant Jena and Minister of State for External Affairs Kamala Sinha started trickling in, Law and Justice Minister Ramakant Khalap went around to the Opposition benches trying to soften them up.

Earlier, with hands folded, he had pleaded to the House: “There may have been some lapses, but I request you to allow this Bill to be passed.” Khalap reiterated that a recent all-party meeting on electoral reforms had secured the support of the BJP as well, and that if this Bill was not passed today the Vice-Presidential election on August 16 could not take place.But the BJP members would have none of it. Members like T N Chaturvedi and Satish Aggarwal said the government was taking its support for granted, that it should have been consulted on the specific issue of the Vice-Presidential nomination and not only in times of crisis.

“You are trying to fool the Parliament… this government is entirely non-functional,” Agarwal said, adding, “I avail of this opportunity to censure the government and I am not prepared to withdraw (the motion).”

Other BJP members added that it could not condone the government’s frequent use of ordinances to conduct ordinary business. Agarwal noted that in any case, defeat for the government in this motion would not prevent the Vice-Presidential election from taking place.

Prime Minister I K Gujral acknowledged that the fewer the ordinances the better, especially since as he was a great votary for building consensus. “I will not say that ordinances will not be promulgated from now on… I don’t want to take the House up the garden path,” he said, adding that the Bill might have to be brought back in another form.

But earlier in the evening, Khalap, desperate that the Bill be passed, was in effect contradicting his Prime Minister when he said the government “would never bring about any ordinances again.” Heptullah remarked that it was wise not to make such categoric assurances because one never knew what happened even as early in the next session.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party was beginning to sense victory and rejected a proposal by Heptullah to adjourn for ten minutes when matters could be sorted out in her chamber. They insisted the Bill be put to vote.