Signalling rift within,Cong MP slams Sibal,stalls Bill

An upset Sibal called on the Prime Minister later this evening and is learnt to have complained of mismanagement in the House.

If the discussion on the Bill was opened by BJPs Balwant Bal Apte who recorded his total disappointment over educational reforms, the tone was set by Rao.

A permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee,Rao said that while the Minister was thinking right on these reformist measures,this was not backed up by the kind of implementation machinery that it requires.

The standing committee on HRD,headed by Oscar Fernandes,had called the

Bill hastily drafted without proper consultation with state governments,Central University VCs and private sector stakeholders.

It had noted that most states had not approved the legislation and pointed out that únfair practices by educational institutions were not properly defined.

It also didnt endorse the proposed appointment of three Secretaries in the national-level tribunals saying that would lead to over-bureaucratisation.

None of your Bills,the Right to Education Bill or this Bill or any other Bill that has come before this House has yielded the desired results8230;Education Minister is nothing but a first-class file pusher8230;of the administrative system,Rao said.

When the House broke for lunch,Sibals deputy,D Purandeshwari also from Andhra Pradesh like Rao stopped by to speak to Rao about his outburst but the damage had been done. Most speakers echoed Rao and although the Congress MP said he didnt oppose the Bill,the chorus for a deferral grew louder with the BJP much to the surprise of many of its own leaders following suit.

BSPs Satish Chandra Mishra said that if the effort of the standing committee was to be treated as a dustbin article,these committees should be abolished. CPMs K N Balagopal said the Bill impinged on the rights of state governments. And JDUs N K Singh questioned the urgency of bringing the Bill barely 10 days after the standing committees recommendations and said that trampling on these was contrary to the spirit in which these committees were formed.

Sibal said the Ministry would incorporate the committees recommendations in the rules to be framed and agreed to defer the Bill to the next session. No reform is perfect,no legislation is perfect. Legislation is always evolutional, said Sibal.

Sources in the Congress said that Raos attack betrayed a divide within the party. It was Rao who had initiated the debate on the killing of CRPF personnel in Dantewada in the last session of Parliament and had criticised the governments anti-Naxal policy. Rao is also said to enjoy the support of senior Congress leaders like Janardan Dwivedi who was once in the race for the HRD Ministry.

Congress sources said that Sibals reforms in the education sector are also said to have hurt the interest of many powerful lobbies,including politicians with direct or an indirect interest in this sector.

Along with the Educational Tribunals Bill,Sibal has been pushing two other bills,the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority Bill and the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical,Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill. The Tribunal Bill is critical to these two since it sets up the overall grievance-redressal mechanism.

Rao had to quit his post as Andhra Pradesh PCC chief after his son was embroiled in allegations of murder in 2007. He has never won an election. Yet,he was later inducted as a permanent invitee to the CWC and given charge of Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Now we have to see how the party high command reacts to this trend in the party and the government. One day,you have Janardan Dwivedi issuing a circular cautioning leaders like Digvijay Singh against speaking out of turn and the next day you have Dwivedi himself attacking the Home Minister for his saffron terror remark, said a senior Congress leader.