THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

  Subhas Ray

ON the second Monday in its monsoon session, Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day after paying homage to a sitting member, George Eden, who passed away on July 26. Next day the house witnessed repeated adjournments on the issue of the CBI’s investigation procedure; the last adjournment for the day came at 2.09 p m. On Wednesday, the government introduced an obnoxious Election and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Bill in the house.

On Thursday, the CBI’s non-inclusion of the speeches by deputy prime minister L K Advani, HRD minister M M Joshi and a few others in the evidence submitted to the Rae Bareli court, that is hearing the Babri demolition case, dominated both the houses, with the opposition stalling the proceedings. The opposition sat peacefully in Lok Sabha during the question hour. But thereafter repeated clashes took place with the members of treasury benches, as the opposition charged that the CBI was forced to present a doctored tape to the court so as to get the senior Sangh Parivar leaders off the hook. They demanded that all evidence in the case be tabled. Amid uproar, the house was adjourned for the day.

The upper house too was adjourned twice on the issue in the pre-lunch session, without transacting any business. A vociferous opposition went on demanding a discussion on this issue. However, an assurance from deputy chairperson Najma Heptulla brought back normalcy in the house.

ELECTION BILL

On Wednesday, Lok Sabha passed the Election and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Bill 2003 that sought to amend the Representation of People Act, the Income Tax Act, and some provisions of the Companies Act. After the enactment of this noxious bill, any individual, partnership firm or a company (excluding a government company) is entitled to make contributions by cheque to a recognised political party, and there would be no limit to it. Private companies can contribute five per cent of their profits. A proposed amendment to the Income Tax Act would allow a donor a suitable deduction for the amount so contributed. Political parties, in turn, would have to submit a list of those donating more than Rs 20,000 to the Election Commission every year. There is also a proposal to add an explanation to Section 77 in relation to the expenditure incurred by a candidate in election. The expenses incurred on transportation of national or state leaders to visit constituencies or on their security would not be attributed to a candidate.

Strongly opposing the bill, the CPI(M)’s Varkala Radhakrishnan dubbed it as anti-national and a serious risk to the state’s security. He said a stage has come after half a century of independence where money power and muscle power are the most predominant factors in our democratic process, and now one has to fight hard for free and fair elections. Though the people’s collective action can prevent muscle power, money power cannot be prevented in this way. He reminded that we are living in the age of multinational companies that are functioning under the cover of national companies in our country. But the bill provides an indirect way for foreign money to influence the process of elections here. The CPI(M) member cautioned that the bill would thus jeopardise the state’s security.

As for the argument being given that the central and state governments are not in a financially sound position to contribute to the state election funds, Radhakrishnan rejected it. He emphatically said we must find out a way so that election funding is done by the state itself, as was recommended by the Indrajeet Gupta committee. Asking for what purpose we fought for independence, the CPI(M) member said this amendment would subject us to money power --- indigenous and foreign. Therefore, the first and foremost thing to do is to revive and extend state funding so as to save our democracy. A candidate must not be left at the mercy of multinationals for fighting elections because he would then be bound to obey the orders from the multinational companies’ boards of directors. That is the danger facing the country, he warned.

Ridiculing the government’s plea for transparency in election funding, he asked: is transparency at work in India? In spite of the Income Tax Act, Companies Act and all those other legislations, our poll process gets influenced by black money. Now, after this amended bill, companies will be allowed to openly influence the electorate and legislatures. It is no transparency but political bribing. Big companies have been given a license to bribe the candidates and parties. Our parliamentary democracy, Radhakrishnan said, must not be allowed to be influenced by multinationals or Indian monopolists, as that would sound its death-knell.

BILL ON FISCAL MANAGEMENT

On  July 29, Rajya Sabha passed the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Bill 2003. Joining the debate, the CPI(M)’s K Chandran Pillai urged the government to review the bill. He said inappropriate resource mobilisation and further reduction in the government investment in all the three major sectors (agriculture, industry and services), the reduction in customs duty and increasing tax evasion are contributing to our increasing revenue deficit. States are facing an acute shortage of funds and are in a very difficult situation due to reduction in investments. A large number of small scale industries are now facing difficulties; many of them have become sick and closed. The government has no plan to utilise the bank funds and enhance the installed capacity of industries. As a result, unemployment is increasing by leaps and bounds. Thus this bill is not going to serve any purpose.

As for agriculture, the measures taken by the government are not in the right direction. Subsidies on agriculture are being withdrawn; farmers are suffering. The government is reducing its investment in the sector. That means the fertiliser prices would go up; there will be an adverse impact on food security, he warned. So a major improvement in the economic situation of the states is required, he said.

THE ISSUE OF PREMCHAND

In the same house, Sarla Maheshwari, CPI(M), forcefully demanded restoration of Munshi Premchand’s novel Nirmala in the CBSE syllabus and celebration of his birthday as Sahitya Diwas. She said July 31 was Munshi Premchand’s birthday and Indian writers celebrated the whole preceding week as Munshi Premchand Week. On this occasion, they also demanded that the ministry of human resource development retain the novel Nirmala in the CBSE syllabus. The CPI(M) member said the Premchand literature is a heritage of the entire world. Hence she appealed that the government stop showing disrespect to Munshi-ji and restore his previous respectful place in the CBSE syllabus.

BEST BAKERY: NHRC PETITION

Nilotpal Basu, CPI(M), drew the Rajya Sabha’s attention to the National Human Right Commission’s (NHRC) petition in Supreme Court for a retrial of the Best Bakery case. He said the NHRC, a statutory body, had also urged the Supreme Court that the retrial in the case be held outside the state of Gujarat. Not only this, it has also petitioned that three other, very serious cases, in which a large number of minorities were killed and a number were injured, should also be tried outside Gujarat.

Thus the petition implied that, insofar as the victims and their human rights are concerned, the judicial process is not secure within the state. This also implies that constitutional injunctions about the administration of justice and the perfect conditions for that are not being honoured in the state. This, the CPI(M) member said, has constitutional implications, with respect to which the government of India has a certain role. Hence he demanded that the government of India must come forward and make a statement in the house as to how it viewed this total collapse of the constitutional order in the BJP-ruled Gujarat.

On the same issue, opposition parties submitted a spate of notices in Lok Sabha for a discussion on the initiative taken by the NHRC. But this was not to be, because the belligerent and unruly members of treasury benches prevented the opposition from raising this issue. During this week, the BSP created ruckus in the house one day, then Shiv Sena members made an uproar another day, and now the BJP members disrupted the proceedings. CPI(M) members were not allowed to raise any issue during the zero hour for several days and, in protest, they walked out of the house. The situation in parliament has degenerated to such a level that opposition parties do not get much time to speak. Everything is decided by the brute power of BJP and NDA in the house.

OTHER ISSUES

In a special mention in Rajya Sabha, Matilal Sarkar, CPI(M), demanded more funds for Tripura through the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFCL). He said this body was set up for the north-east region’s industrial and infrastructural development. But the people of Tripura are being utterly neglected in respect of sanctions and disbursements from the NEDFCL. It is clear from the fact that sanctions ranged from 2 to 7 per cent and disbursements from zero to 6 per cent during the period 1997-98 to 2002-03, on yearly basis. As Tripura happens to be one of the financially backward states in the country, the centre must issue a proper directive to financial institutions so that the state gets more funds. Sarkar urged the government to clear the backlog of sanctions and disbursements for the state, bringing it up to date.

In Lok Sabha, A K Premajam, CPI(M), demanded immediate approval to  the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK) for construction of railway overbridges in the state. She said the railways had asked the RBDCK to construct 20 railway overbridges in the state. The Southern Railway expressed satisfaction about the good progress achieved by the RBDCK. But the Railway Board has not taken any decision so far in the matter, and this has considerably slowed the progress on the remaining overbridges in the state. She urged the rail minister to take necessary steps in this regard, at the earliest.