People's Democracy

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Subhas Ray

THE Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day on July 19, the first day of the third week of the budget session, after paying obituary reference to a sitting member, Ramchandra Veerappa. The Rajya Sabha held a discussion on general budget the same day.

However, the week witnessed the irresponsible and undemocratic attitude of the opposition, which indulged in stalling proceedings, trooping into the well of the Houses, shouting slogans etc leading to repeated adjournments of both the Houses for the last four days of the week. The peak of it was reached when they openly cast aspersions on the Speaker. They were raising the issue of union coal minister, Shibu Soren’s absence after an arrest warrant was issued against him by Jharkhand court in connection with the Chirrudih massacre in Bihar in 1975. They vociferously demanded that prime minister must make a statement on the issue.

On the next day, on July 22, trouble began immediately after the Houses convened. The opposition wanted adjournment of the Houses. When the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, ignored the commotion and tried to continue with themember by s business listed, a Shiv Sena member cast aspersions on the Chair. The Speaker then rebuked the aying the member was demeaning the entire House by his remarks. Amid unrelenting slogan-shouting by the BJP and Shiv Sena members, the Speaker refused to give in for about half-an-hour. However, he adjourned the House for 15 minutes at 11.45 a m. When the House met again at noon, members from both the opposition and the treasury benches came face to face in the well of the House. The Speaker then adjourned the House till 2 p m. In the post-lunch session, he allowed the leader of the opposition, L K Advani to speak. Advani urged the Speaker to ask the prime minister to make a statement and requested him to adjourn the House till then. Showing respect to the opposition leader’s request, the Speaker adjourned the House for the day reminding him the Chair can not force any minister or the prime minister to make a statement.

In Rajya Sabha, the situation was no different. The House also witnessed adjournment twice and and finally for the day, a few minutes after the house met post lunch period.

The last day of the first phase of the budget session, July 23, was no different with the opposition bent on continuing with its obstructionist attitude in both the Houses. They forced adjournment of both the Houses for the fourth consecutive day demanding Prime Minister’s statement on Shibu Soren issue. Feeling pained by the stand of the opposition, the Speaker, Somnath Chaterjee, prepared a statement as an attempt to break the deadlock that began with the ‘tainted’ ministers issue and intensified over Shibu Soren issue (see box). In an unprecedented happening, the Speaker was prevented by the opposition from making his statement. As soon as he started reading his statement, he was shouted down by the opposition members. This unprecedented behaviour was strongly condemned by the UPA and Left members.

DISCUSSION ON GENERAL BUDGET

Before these unscheduled adjournments, both the Houses held discussions on the general budget. The CPI(M) leader in Rajya Sabha, Nilotpal Basu, in his speech said  the budget has to be guaged in terms of how best it addressed the question of all pervading livelihood crisis, particularly in agricultural sector. He drew attention to the falling food production levels.

Basu criticised the government for not making transparent the mobilisation of funds. If the revenue projection does not come through, then there would be a problem, he warned. He also criticised the increase in allocation for Defence saying it wa not in accordance with the priorities of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). He felt that the projected growth rate of 8 per cent cannot be achieved without having domestic savings of 32 per cent in the country, and the kind of interest regime that is there at present was clearly not in favour of the depositor.

There was discrimination in the interest regime with the farmers of Andhra Pradesh getting loans at the rate of 14 per cent interest per annum but in metros and urban cities the rich are getting the benefits of car loans at the rate of only 6 per cent. The government is not prepared to transfer the benefits of the soft interest regime to the employees saying it would be anti-reform measure. Basu asked the government to address the big question of how to realign the interest regime in a manner which would help in addressing the investment concerns.

Basu strongly demanded the government to review its decisions allowing hike in FDI caps in the crucial sectors of insurance, telecom and civil aviation. He said the Left parties were opposed to this hike and felt that the government was not practising coalition dharma. He concluded by appealing to the government to stick to the CMP.

Another CPI(M) member, K Chandran Pillai, while welcoming some aspects of the budget expressed serious reservations on certain proposals. The increase in allocation for budget was criticised. He advised the government to see how far it is possible to reduce the defence expenditure by further developing good relations with neighbouring countries. He also criticised the low allocation for agriculture -  only 1.3 per cent of GDP - and demanded increase. As for mobilising resources, he wanted the government to seriously undertake the task of recovery of tax arrears and non performing assets. He felt there was no justification for selling out the 5 per cent share of NTPC. Pillai asked for bigger allocations for traditional industries so that unemployment problem could be solved to some extent. He also asked the government to ensure that the Rs 4,000 crore mobilised through education cess is utilised for education sector alone.

In Lok Sabha, P Karunakaran of CPI(M) speaking on the general budget said that though agriculture and infrastructure have been given importance in this budget, it was not sufficient. The allocation for education also was not sufficient to meet the demands. He felt there is a need to create special fund for helping the backward states, particularly in view of the financial crisis faced by most of the states. Expressing dissatisfaction at the allocation made to agriculture, Karunakaran stressed that the government must encourage agicultural growth by undertaking land reforms. He also wanted a welfare fund set up for agricultural workers. There should be a concrete and time bound programme, a packaged scheme to give assistance and also relief to the common farmers. In view of all this, he wanted the allocation to the agricultural sector to be enhanced. He said how the neo-liberal policies of the previous government had ruined the small scale sector of the country, hitting the weaker sections and women the most. Referring to the crisis in Kerala, he said, lakhs of people are working in traditional sectors. In handloom industry the state government of Kerala has asked for an incentive to the handloom industry as well as the reintroduction of rebate. Coir as a biodegradable natural fibre, should be encouraged and extra market assistance be extended in order to save the coir industry. Some protective measures must be taken for the cashew plantation, he demanded. Extensively dealing with the plight of bidi workers, he said, 90 per cent of bidi workers are women. For production of every thousand bidies, the poor workers have to give duties of Rs 9 and for welfare fund Rs 1 is cut for Gujarat calamity. These innocent bidi workers in Kerala are not at all responsible for this calamity. Therefore, all these must be stopped, Karunakaran demanded. He welcomed the rail minister’s announcement of packages and schemes for village and khadi industries and wanted similar direction to be given to the states and the public sector undertakings to use khadi.

With the adjournment of both the Houses on July 23, the first phase of this budget session concluded. Thje Parliament will now reconvene after a three-week recess on August 16. During this recess period various Standing Committees and other committees will be formed and they will start functioning. During the second phase of budget session there would be discussions on demands for Grants for various ministries and the Finance Bill, along with other business.