People's Democracy

The Week in Parliament

Subhas Ray

ON August 7, first day of the week under review, BJP members once again held up the proceedings in parliament, seeking to bring privilege motion against the prime minister on leakage of the Pathak enquiry report on the oil-for-food scam. After the first adjournment during zero hour, the much disputed Pathak report and along with it the action taken report (ATR) were tabled by the finance minister, P Chidambaram, in Lok Sabha and minister of state for finance, Pawan Kumar Bansal, in Rajya Sabha. 

IRRESPONSIBLE OPPOSITION

In Lok Sabha, the day began with the demand for the speaker’s response on the privilege notice given by V K Malhotra (BJP). As BJP members continued to raise slogans in the well of the house against the prime minister, the speaker adjourned the house for 15 minutes. When the house met again, the remaining part of question hour was drowned in the din and the speaker adjourned the house for the second time. There was no let up in commotion in the post-lunch period, with the opposition demanding apology from the prime minister. That evoked a counter-attack from the treasury benches. Terming the opposition’s behaviour as shameful and a direct attack on democracy, the speaker then adjourned the house for the day.

The issue crippled the proceedings in Rajya Sabha too, leading to repeated adjournments. As a counter to Malhotra’s privilege notice, V Narayanasamy (Congress) asked about the fate of his privilege notice against the opposition leader, Jaswant Singh, on his failure to name the “mole” in the prime minister’s office. But the chairman said he could not give any ruling as the said notices were under scrutiny. This failed to satisfy the members, leading to adjournment of the house for the day. 

As a part of their insidious moves to disrupt the parliament’s functioning, BJP members also targeted the Lok Sabha speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, employing crude unparliamentary methods to provoke him to resign. In reply to the speaker’s August 7 letter requesting the NDA to reconsider its boycott decision, A B Vajpayee made insinuating remarks questioning the speaker’s integrity. The speaker, however, chose not to comment on Vajpayee’s letter. But the content of Vajpayee’s letter infuriated the Congress and Left members. Parliamentary affairs minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi termed it as the “saddest day” in the history of India’s parliamentary democracy when a leader of Vajpayee’s stature had made unprecedented, highly objectionable comments on the institution of the speaker. Leaders of Left parties in parliament said they had never expected Vajpayee to question the chair’s impartiality; his language appeared to suggest that he wanted the speaker to quit. They charged that instead of bringing a no-confidence motion against the speaker, Vajpayee made a public insinuation against him, thus denigrating our parliamentary system. However, when members sought to raise this issue in Lok Sabha on August 10, the speaker did not allow them to do so.

FARMERS IN DISTRESS

This week, Lok Sabha passed the Supplementary Demands for Grants (General) 2006-07. During the debate, the CPI(M)’s P Karunakaran said the government’s claim of 8 percent growth, inflation control and initiation of certain welfare measures did not reflect in the actual life of our rural people. The government has not implemented the Swaminathan recommendations on agriculture. As far as food security is concerned, the government is importing wheat at higher prices due to failure of its agencies to procure wheat here. As a result, wheat production has gone down and grain supply for the public distribution system has been seriously affected. On the other hand, the grains procured by corporates and multinationals are being sold in open market at much higher prices. Unless we have a good buffer stock, we won’t be able to evolve a satisfactory solution to this problem. For the last two years, we have been discussing the farmers’ issues in the country, but the situation has gone from bad to worse. The government’s import policy has hit many states hard, Kerala in particular. The price of pepper per quintal has declined from Rs 21,000 three years back to Rs 7,000 to 6,000 now. Against the 60 rupees needed to produce one kg of arecanut, its price was Rs 160 earlier, but has now declined to Rs 45-50 now. 

Karunakaran also drew attention to how crooks are benefiting from the GoI’s unrestricted import policy. Sri Lanka’s pepper export to India is three times higher than its actual production, because other countries are exporting their pepper to Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka is exporting it to India as its own product. As a result, if Malabar pepper was once famous worldwide and called the black asset, pepper farmers are now in a bad position. But while the prices of agricultural products are declining, the costs of agricultural inputs as well as charges in the health, education, transport and other sectors are going up. The member asked how it is possible for these farmers to survive. He said it is high time the government comes out with a comprehensive policy in order to salvage the situation for the farmers. He also warned that temporary measures like the Vidarbha package won’t solve the problem; we need a complete change in government policy to save the farm sector. 

Drawing attention to the situation in Kerala, the member said this deficit state has been, for the last four to five years, experiencing floods and other natural calamities, with the farmers losing their crops. Though the Kerala farmers have long back shifted from paddy cultivation to plantation crops like rubber, pepper and other such items, their condition has not improved. Regarding the central investment in Kerala, he said it is decreasing year by year and Kerala in not included in the list of states meant for more investment and assistance. He concluded with the demand of more central assistance and investment in Kerala, including more investment in technical education.

Sunil Khan, CPI(M), referred to the rising prices of all essential commodities, suggesting tax reduction on petro products. In order to check farmers’ suicide, there should be crop diversification and reduction of bank loan interest from 7 to 4 percent. It may give some relief to farmers, he said. As our commercial banks hesitate to extend loans to farmers, the government must fix what proportion of bank deposits would go to farmers. Also, though the rural employment guarantee scheme is a very good scheme, only agricultural workers get work under it. Educated people do not get any relief and a scheme must be formulated to provide them jobs. There should also be a soil testing centre in each district. 

Referring to the Anganwadi workers’ dharna in New Delhi, Khan demanded a wage increase for them and their recognition as regular government employees. During his intervention, Khan also raised issues like primary education, setting up of AIIMS like hospitals in states, immediate payment of HSCL employees’ salaries, pension scheme for labourers in unorganised sectors, merger of Hindustan Cables with MTNL or BSNL and revival package for the Burn Standard. 

OTHER ISSUES

During the Rajya Sabha discussion on floods in various states, the CPI(M)’s P Madhu described it as really serious with almost half of Andhra Pradesh reeling under severe floods. Several people have lost their lives there; entire cattle population in some villages has perished. Many villages in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are cut-off from the other parts of the country. For example, 160 villages in Andhra Pradesh remained cut-off for four days. The worst to get affected were the agricultural labourers, tribals and dalits, and needed support by way of kerosene, edible oil, grains and other essential items so as to survive. Madhu apealed the central government to provide all necessary help to these states.

The Central Silk Board (Amendment) Bill 2005 was passed by Rajya Sabha. In the debate, supporting the bill, the CPI(M)’s Moinul Hassan said the main objective of the bill was the creation of a regulatory mechanism with respect to silkworm seed. Sericulture creates many jobs for rural population in our country. In this regard, he suggested many steps, like increase in the number of expert members in the Central Silkworm Seed Committee, check on dealers selling fake seeds, and import of good quality silkworm eggs from China as the climatic conditions in West Bengal and Southern China are more or less similar. A majority of sericulturists in West Bengal belong to the SC, ST, minority communities and other weaker sections of the society, and are small or marginal farmers. So subsidy enhancement is very much required. R&D wing must pay proper attention to West Bengal in order to help the small and marginal silk farmers. He requested the Central Silk Board to continue with subsidies to matka spinners in the state to improve the quality of matka production. He also sought central help to set up a silk port and silk hub in Murshidabad, Nadia and Malda.

In the same house, Tapan Sen of the CPI(M) raised the issue of appointment of a foreign national as chief operating officer at IGI Airport, Delhi. He said the handover of the management, control and operation of Delhi and Mumbai airports to private operators with foreign collaboration is a matter of grave concern. A foreign national from a NATO country has been appointed as the chief operating officer of Delhi Airport and will enjoy unlimited access to all information regarding the movement of VVIPs, including the president and the prime minister, and other sensitive areas like operation of aviation research centres, special security networking at airports and the contiguous areas linked to airport operation. The serious security implications of this appointment can hardly be ignored, particularly when the security of our country is being targeted by conspirators and anti-national forces. Sen urged the government to appoint an efficient Indian citizen in place of a foreign national in the interest of the country. 

Rajya Sabha passed the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill 2006 on August 8. Participating in the debate, Matilal Sarkar of the CPI(M) said a child is not born a criminal and so the aim must be to make him a good man and responsible citizen. Pointing out several lacunae in the bill, regarding the rights or education of the children, parental care etc, Sarkar said even though several legal provisions have been made in these regards, the problem of how to implement them at the social level remains. He also expressed concern over the exclusion of local authorities from child related matters, though the role of local authorities cannot be denied as they know best about the children in their areas of jurisdiction. Regarding juvenile delinquents, Sarkar said a child in no case should be lodged in a jail or put in police custody; rather (s)he must be sent to children’s home or special homes. Regarding children’s homes, he also recalled the standing committee’s word of caution about indulging in selling or buying children. Proper monitoring of children’s homes is needed as criminals, in connivance with the managements of these homes, abuse the children, especially girls. Many of such homes do not care for children’s safety or wellbeing, rather criminalise them. What preventive measures the government is taking to protect these children, he asked. The condition of most of these homes is very bad as they lacking water, sanitation and games facilities. The financial burden of running these homes must not be left to the state governments as they are suffering from resource crunch. 

August 13, 2006