NEW DELHI, 17 July 2004 — The noise being made by opposition members about the inclusion of “tainted” members in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Cabinet was judicially stifled yesterday with the Supreme Court dismissing a petition on the issue.

Dismissing the petition filed by one Manoj Narula, which challenged the inclusion of Lalu Prasad, Jai Prakash Yadav, M.A.A. Fatmi and Mohammad Taslimuddin in the Cabinet, the court said: “The matter is being debated in Parliament. We will see if Parliament comes out with a legislation on this issue.” The court also observed that there was no violation of any constitutional statute on the issue.

The petition contended that as ministers had to carry out important constitutional functions, their integrity should be above board and hence persons who have been chargesheeted in any case should not be included in the council of ministers.

With the petition’s dismissal, the plans of opposition leaders to organize nationwide demonstrations and protests against “tainted” ministers may have to be shelved.

Parliamentary proceedings were yesterday not stalled by the opposition members’ protest against Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s decision to order a fresh probe into the Godhra-incident that sparked the Gujarat carnage in February 2002.

They have been forced to change their political strategy because of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s decision to permit the telecast of all disruption in the Parliament. Earlier, when there were disruptions, the camera would focus only on the speaker.

Chatterjee said: “Earlier speakers may have adjourned but I have not been elected to adjourn the house but to run the house.” The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were thus witness to opposition leaders making statements against Lalu’s decision for a fresh probe into the Godhra incident.

Confronting Lalu’s charge that the previous government had kept the forensic report on the incident under wraps, former Railways Minister Nitish Kumar said in the Lok Sabha: “Considering the spirit of the rule, it is clear that the interpretation of Section 189 and Section 115 of the Railways Act by the railways minister is politically motivated to draw mileage. The statement of Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal that the information about the forensic report was kept under wraps is also misleading.”

A section of the Congress, RJD and CPI(M) members voiced protests while Kumar was making his statement despite repeated appeals for order by the speaker.

Raising objections to this, opposition leader L.K. Advani told the speaker that earlier in the day two union ministers and senior leaders of the ruling coalition had met him requesting his cooperation for the smooth conduct of the houses and he had agreed. “But now some members do not want the house to run when Mr. Nitish Kumar wants to make a statement.”

Business was transacted more smoothly in the Rajya Sabha where senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi made a statement on the issue. Condemning the UPA alliance for insinuating that the Godhra incident was a “premeditated action plan” of the ruling party in Gujarat, Joshi said that this was unfair and “nobody would do such things.”

Stocks Likely to Trade Around Current Levels in Coming Week

Indian stocks were seen hovering around current levels amid fears that the annual monsoon rains, vital to economic growth in the agriculture-dependent nation, could be patchy.

Brokers said the worries over the monsoon were likely to put a cap on a late rally this week sparked by hopes that a new tax on trading transactions would be modified and good first-quarter earnings.

The country’s economic fortunes hinge on the monsoon and last season’s generous rains brought a bumper crop that drove economic expansion above eight percent, making the country’s economy one of the world’s fastest growing.