People's Democracy

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Subhas Ray

ON first day of the week, August 29, members in both the houses expressed anguish on terrorist violence in the country. Lok Sabha held a heated debate on an adjournment motion on terrorist violence in the country, with particular reference to the two blasts in Hyderabad.

CONDEMNING VIOLENCE

On this occasion, many members lambasted the Andhra government’s failure to protect the people in spite of the information, received from the Intelligence Bureau and conveyed to the state government, that such an incident might happen any time in any metropolitan city. A member even recalled how the chief minister had recently said on the floor of the Andhra Pradesh assembly that “we have sufficient information as to what is going on in TDP headquarters, what is going on in BJP headquarters, what is going on in CPI and CPI(M) headquarters. Every hour I am getting all this information through my intelligence agencies.” He is using the intelligence agencies for his party purposes, the member charged in Lok Sabha.

In Rajya Sabha, the CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury sharply criticised the state government for deputing, to protect the lives of the people, private security agencies who have no accountability. This indicates how insecure the people in Andhra Pradesh are.

However, Lok Sabha displayed unanimity in condemning the mindless violence and inhuman killings. This has to be taken note of by the government and the whole country, Md Salim of the CPI(M) said during the debate. He said: the government starts a probe when such incidents take place but, taking leaf from such incidents, it has not yet formulated any strategy to check the recurrence of such incidents in future so that terrorists are not able to strike again. There have been a number of lapses in our security arrangements, including callousness with the passage of time. So the terrorists strike again and take innocent lives. To deal with terrorism, the first prerequisite is that the country must be united on this issue. It is unfortunate that we are fighting a war on terrorism with a communal and sectarian attitude; we are doing politics even in the matter of fighting terrorism. In fact we strengthen the terrorists if we divide the people of this country in the name of religion. About the recent attacks, Salim said the terrorists do not strike where we are alert; rather they attack and target the crowd of innocent people at bus stands and railway stations etc. It has been pointed out that the state government had the information that such an attack is likely to take place made in Hyderabad. Yet the state government did not take pre-emptive measures. It is a rather common experience that those responsible for serial blasts or the masterminds of terrorist activities are not nabbed. Terrorism is a sordid fact and the entire world is facing it. India has become its major prey. But, then, it is wrong to look upon this issue through a parochial prism. There are liberals and there are hardliners in all communities. What we need is a proper investigation of any case of terrorism in the country; the guilty should be nabbed at the earliest. Politicians and police officers must refrain from passing controversial statements. If the government cannot control the politicians, there must at least be strict guidelines for the officers in this regard, he suggested.

On the day, Rajya Sabha made a reference to the victims of Hyderabad bomb blasts and observed silence to condole the deaths. Expressing concern over the August 25 blasts, Sitaram Yechury said we have been subjected to terrorist attacks whose perpetrators do not respect any religion. Any such attack ought to be taken as an attack on the whole nation. Castigating the state government for handing over the security jobs to private agencies, Yechury said there were security arrangements in Lumbini Park in Hyderabad; the question is: how could any terrorist enter that place with a bomb? Public security cannot be entrusted to private agencies and that is one of the important reasons for what happened in Lumbini Park. Who is accountable for this? This is of serious concern for the country. Rejecting the theory of any weakness or absence of a law that is preventing us from taking action against such terrorists, he said there was an attack on the parliament even when you had the POTA. For the sake of humanity, it is necessary today that we all come together to fight this enemy. He urged the government that all the loopholes must be plugged.

ATROCITIES ON DALITS

In the same house, Brinda Karat of the CPI(M) raised the issue of atrocities on dalits in different parts of the country. She said there is a strong sense of resentment that the police does not act in time to prevent the so-called revenge killings. The roots of caste system in our society are so deep that even a good programme can be misused against the dalits. In Salhe village in Maharashtra, it was decided to construct ten wells from the prime minister’s special package for Vidarbha region. When some dalit families demanded a well or two for their unirrigated holdings, they were maltreated, abused and mercilessly beaten up. An old woman lost one eye in an attempt to protect her son who was being beaten up with lathis by the upper caste people. No case was filed about this atrocity. In the name of action, the police enforced very light sections of law, while this is the Maharashtra government’s responsibility to enforce the constitutional provision to protect the dalits. Brinda demanded that the union home minister intervene and stringent action must be taken against the culprits.

Babu Rao Mediyam, CPI(M), drew attention of the Lok Sabha to the tragic rape committed in Vakapalli, a small village, in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. He said this barbaric act was committed by an anti-naxal squad that entered the village on the plea of searching for Naxalites. They forcibly raped 11 dalit women who took shelter in a hut. People are very agitated as the police did not register a case. On August 22, when the entire village people came out in protest, the victims were taken to the hospital by the local legislator.

At Mudigonda a few weeks ago, a similar squad shot dead 7 persons and injured 16. Those people were protesting for a piece of land in the Gandhian way of an indefinite hunger strike. They too were shot dead by a similar anti-naxal squad. Babu Rao strongly demanded that the central government conduct an inquiry and pay of Rs 10 lakh each to the women who were raped. He also demanded that the members of the concerned squad be booked under the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

INLAND NAVIGATION

On August 30, Lok Sabha passed the Inland Vessels (Amendment) Bill 2007. The CPI(M)’s P Karunakaran and K S Manoj participated in the discussion. Karunakaran said it is good that the government was at last taking some interest in promoting inland navigation. Inland navigation needs intensive study, especially in the wake of scientific and technological developments that have taken place. Now, to protect and strengthen inland navigation, the government has declared three inland waterways. But if the main objective is an extension of the inland waterways, the government has to allocate more funds for this. Otherwise, it will not be possible to develop inland waterways. It is not only the question of developing transport facilities; it is also connected with promoting tourism in the country, in Kerala in particular.

With regard to the definition of inland waterways, it is true that there are some positive changes compared to the earlier bill. But still it needs more attention because more waterways can be included. The waterways nearer a sea mouth can be included in the list of inland waterways, he suggested. The harbour waterways should also be included in the list of waterways in some specific areas. For this, a modification in the definition of waterways is required. There should be proper rehabilitation of fishermen before carrying out dredging. Ships or other vessels discharge oil and other extracts into the sea and rivers, and this affects environment. So a clause for preventing pollution of our rivers needs to be included in this bill. Certificates have to be issued for the vessels with utmost care, and there should be proper monitoring of the vessels. The Kerala government has given some suggestions about improvement of waterways in Kerala and these suggestions should be incorporated, he demanded.

K S Manoj demanded extension of Kottappuram-Kollam waterways to Neeleswaram and also to Trivandrum. He expressed apprehension over the seepage of saline water into the paddy fields in Alleppey due to dredging of waterways, and demanded preventive measures in this regard. Leakage of oil into the waterways is a matter of serious concern and adequate measures should be taken to prevent it. The site proposed for the inland cargo terminal at Alleppey is the same site where the famous Nehru Trophy Board Race is taking place, and it is also the site for the houseboat terminal. The state government has requested for a transfer of the site. The centre must consider the request, he stressed.

UNORGANISED SECTOR WORKERS

In Lok Sabha, Santasri Chatterjee, CPI(M), strongly raised the issue of commitment made by the UPA government for a comprehensive social legislation for the unorganised sector workers, including the displaced ones. He said three years have passed, so many sessions have been held, and we have raised the issue on a number of occasions. The plight of these workers is so serious that any sensible government would have got up and brought a legislation to mitigate their hardship. But, despite its commitment to bring a law, the UPA government has developed cold feet on this issue. In protest, 37 crore unorganised workers went on an all-India strike, Chatterjee reminded.

Minati Sen, CPI(M), drew attention to the need to ensure maternity benefit to the women working in unorganised sector. She said the non-availability of maternity benefit for these women in India is a matter of deep concern in a situation where most working women are not able to access what are their basic rights. A huge majority of working women comes in the unorganised sector and, though the Maternity Benefit Act (1961) states that they too are entitled to maternity benefits, the reality is that most of these women are denied this right. In many cases, pregnancy or even marriage in some cases is used as a reason for depriving a poor woman of her job. Employers indulge in unjust practice of terminating the women’s employment just to evade their commitment on maternity benefits. The legal provision for penalising the employers resorting to such tactics is observed more in its breach. Sen urged the government to act strongly to ensure maternity benefit to the women working in the unorganised sector and correct the lacunae in the legislation immediately in favour of the working women.

OTHER ISSUES

In Lok Sabha, Rupchand Pal of the CPI(M) forcibly demanded a full-fledged discussion on the tendering process in the BSNL and the minister’s unwarranted intervention in the BSNL’s autonomy. He said the communication minister’s intervention in the functional autonomy of BSNL in the matter of purchase of equipments worth 45 billion dollars for mobile services is causing great harm to the prestigious organisation. It is delaying the whole matter. The most questionable thing is that the minister is intervening in favour of a multinational company whose claim has already been turned down by the court. The due process has been completed; already it is late and yet the minister is intervening in a manner that the BSNL board cannot but just protest against it. But still they have to abide by the directions, dangerous directions --- like splitting the whole tender into 2G and 3G, to keep the 3G in pending etc. All this is causing harm to the prestigious PSU in a big way, Pal lashed out.

N N Krishnadas, CPI(M), urged the government to declare support price for coconut. He said coconut is a very important crop for the agro-economy in Kerala, Tamilnadu and other states. There is a serious fall in the coconut prices, very adversely affecting the agro-economy of the states concerned. Now the government is giving support price for copra. There is no justification for depriving coconut of a support price. He urged the government to save the coconut growers in the country by declaring a support price immediately.

September 2, 2007