NEW DELHI, 8 April 2003 — The Indian government yesterday felt the heat of the war in Iraq as opposition parties joined forces to target Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for not condemning outright the US-led military action.
Some of its government allies joined the opposition in seeking adjournment of scheduled business to discuss the Iraq war.
The government and the opposition debated the whole day on the wording of a parliamentary resolution on Iraq but failed to arrive on the language that was acceptable to all parties.
Speaker Manohar Joshi has called another meeting of political party leaders today to finalize the resolution after both houses resumed after a three-week break.
Speaker Manohar Joshi first adjourned the Lok Sabha 45 minutes ahead of the scheduled lunch break following persistent demands to condemn the US-led invasion of Iraq and the killing of innocent civilians there.
The opposition kept up its demand when the house reassembled and Joshi then announced he had convened a meeting of all parties to decide on the language of the resolution on the issue.
“We don’t want to give the impression that MPs are speaking in different voices on the Iraq issue,” Joshi said.
The opposition then demanded the house be adjourned till the resolution was drafted and Joshi acceded to this.
In the Rajya Sabha, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government is in a minority, the proceedings were adjourned to decide whether a resolution should precede the discussion or the other way around.
As the Lok Sabha met, several opposition members, who had given notices for adjournment or suspending question hour to discuss the Iraq crisis, stood up demanding a resolution. The opposition did not accept the Speaker’s suggestion that this be discussed later.
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha’s attempt to circulate a statement also was opposed by the opposition. Members of the left parties and the Samajwadi Party advanced to the speaker’s podium, shouting slogans demanding a resolution on Iraq.
BJP chief whip V.K. Malhotra contended his party had condemned the US aggression more vehemently than any opposition party. There was bedlam in the house when Malhotra alleged the opposition was playing politics on the issue of civilian casualties in Iraq.
Malhotra’s claim had few takers. Even the Telegu Desam Party (TDP), which supports the ruling coalition from the outside, criticized the government for not protesting against the war in the manner it should have.
“The government should have convened a special session just after the war began. We should have sent our strong feelings against the war then itself,” TDP leader B. Venkatashwarlu pointed out.
G. M. Banaatwala of the Indian Union Muslim League wanted India to urge the UN to demand the withdrawal of the coalition forces from Iraq.
“(US President George W.) Bush should be tried as a war criminal. The US must compensate Iraq for the atrocities its forces have committed there. All sanctions against Iraq should be withdrawn,” he said amid applause. Contending that the developments in Iraq were serious enough for Parliament to discus them by putting aside everything else, Basudeb Acharya of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) lamented the government was yet to issue a statement condemning the US invasion.
