In an apparent reference to Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamis recommendation for the removal of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla,the Government on Wednesday came out strongly against an attempt by one constitutional body to impinge on the domain of another. Executive is also a constitutional authority. One of the responsibilities of the executive is to look into if some constitutional authority attempts to transgress jurisdiction of another constitutional authority.. (In such case) Executive will have to do something, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while concluding his response to the motion of thanks on Presidents speech in the Lok Sabha. Mukherjee,however,reminded the House about the merits of democratic institutions,including the Election Commission,for the country. While Mukherjee sidestepped Advanis argument of involvement of local elements behind 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks,he took care to respond to all of the issues raised by the members from Left parties in the debate. This precaution by Mukherjee assumes importance in the wake of the coming Lok Sabha polls. The Left had pulled out support to the government due to its opposition to the India-US nuclear deal. Mukherjee presented facts to back the decision to liberalise FDI regulations to allay the apprehensions of backdoor entry of FDI as expressed by Left MP Mohammad Salim on Tuesday. He also tried hard to allay the Left parties fear of PSUs being neglected by pointing out that there had been an about 87 percent of rise in the profits reported by PSUs in last five years of the UPA government. He,however,said the Government did not intend to return to the control era of 70's nor to give a free hand to privatisation but to find a mean between the two.
