Vintage action in House after months as Advani, PM spar

Then, as the debate veered towards the SC intervention in Jharkhand, it was time for Speaker Chatterjee’s cameo: ‘‘All organs should remain within their limits.’’ Advani responded by saying, ‘‘it is proper to keep holy cows (courts) as holy cows.’’

The joust spilled over to the Rajya Sabha, too, where Manmohan Singh later did an Advani on the Opposition leader while punching holes in the NDA government’s Naxal record. ‘‘All this was happening when the second Sardar Patel was presiding over as the country’s Home minister,’’ said Singh.

With Sonia watching on, and Home Minister Shivraj Patil taking a brief stand in Singh’s defence, the Lok Sabha debate maintained a level of dignity and seriousness that had been largely missing from Parliament for quite some time. Advani set the tone by citing an article in The Indian Express today, which pointed out that the PM needed to make his presence felt more.

‘‘I respect you, but the Prime Minister becoming invisible is not good… A writer has likened the Prime Minister to the missing tigers. This kind of language is not good but it continues. Dr Singh is a person of high credibility in the country because of his honesty and ability. He should affirm his authority. If he does it, this kind of writing will stop.’’

Pointing out that Singh was the country’s supreme executive, Advani said, ‘‘in the last few days, if he (Singh) were to say that he was not not aware of (certain decisions) and he has to collect information (on Jharkhand), then it did not look alright.’’

In his reply, the PM said, ‘‘I must solemnly say that I do not plead guilty to this charge’’ and added that his visibility should be judged by his government’s work.

Raising the pitch, Advani also charged Congress with possessing an ‘‘Emergency mindset,’’ alleging that the party wanted to have its governments all over the country. He told the PM: ‘‘Abandon this policy or distance yourself from it.’’

Then, as the BJP chief charged that the Centre’s policy towards Naxalites was a failure, Home Minister Patil rushed to Singh’s defence, saying, ‘‘There was a conference of chief ministers and those of Naxalite-affected states and the Home Secretary also held talks with state home secretaries.’’.

On his part, the PM did stumble a bit when he said that he ‘‘along with Soniaji’’ had gone wherever needed—flood-hit Bihar and Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Kerala.

But soon, he hit the right stride by drawing a parallel with cricket to take a potshot at Advani over the disruption of Parliament by the Opposition. He said all parties should show the same spirit of sportsmanship that Indian and Pakistani cricketers were displaying. ‘‘Indeed, how nice it would be if we conducted our affairs in this House with the same spirit of sportsmanship that our young cricketers exhibited on the playing fields of the sub-continent,’’ said Singh. Singh also slammed the NDA government’s talks with NSCN(I-M) leaders abroad, pointing out it was now being held on Indian soil. Infiltration in J&K was down by 60 per cent, compared to 2004, Singh said.

Yet, it was in the Rajya Sabha that Singh proved that he was no mean speaker himself. Replying to BJP’s criticism of the UPA’s handling of the Naxal crisis, Singh said: ‘‘The NDA government had been telling us that 130 districts (in the country) were infested with Naxal-insurgency and the same government at the end of its term had claimed that the insurgency had spread to 170 districts.’’

Then came the ‘‘second Sardar Patel’’ remark which left BJP leaders Jaswant Singh and Sushma Swaraj stunned and drew instant applause from across the House.