NEW DELHI, 23 March 2006 — Both houses of India’s Parliament yesterday adjourned indefinitely amid an opposition uproar over plans to change the law on offices-of-profit. The opposition says the move is aimed at protecting the leader of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi.
The issue rocked the Parliament with the opposition attacking the government on reports that it was bringing forward an ordinance to exempt the posts held by Sonia — chairperson of National Advisory Council on Common Minimum Program of the government and of various trusts —, lower house Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and some Congress leaders from attracting disqualification under the electoral law.
Terming the decision as “unconstitutional and undemocratic,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition met President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to seek his intervention in the issue.
“Shame on the government,” “It is undemocratic’ shouted BJP leaders including leader of the opposition L.K. Advani as Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal read out the decision to adjourn the house sine die.
Parliament’s budget session was scheduled to be adjourned yesterday for a recess before meeting again May 10.
“If the government is taking an arbitrary decision to adjourn the house indefinitely without consulting other parties, we will be forced to go to the president,” Advani said before Atwal’s announcement.
Both the houses witnessed repeated adjournments due to protests by the opposition and the Samajwadi Party after a newspaper reported a move by the government to issue an ordinance that would exempt some MPs, including Sonia, from being disqualified for holding offices of profit.
While the BJP opposed the issuing of such an ordinance before the budget session was prorogued, the Samajwadi Party demanded its leader Jaya Bachchan, who was disqualified from the upper house last week for holding an office of profit, should be brought back to the house.
Under the law, the president can issue an ordinance at any time except when Parliament is in session.
Advani said the BJP was objecting to the timing of the ordinance. He told a press conference that the attempt to bring in the ordinance “looked like a move to save Sonia Gandhi.”
Samajwadi Party deputy Ram Gopal Yadav asked the government to recall Election Commissioner Navin Chawla, saying that his past record proved that he was not fit for the post. His party has alleged that Chawla was behind the poll panel’s decision to disqualify Jaya.
The India Express newspaper reported yesterday that the government planned to bring an ordinance to amend the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act to exempt some positions from the category of “offices of profit,” including that of National Advisory Council chairperson and Indian Council of Cultural Relations chairperson (Karan Singh), besides state development boards and textile boards. — Additional input from IANS.
