NEW DELHI, 6 September 2007 — Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for disrupting parliamentary proceedings on “flimsy grounds,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist accused the BJP of forcing an early adjournment of the Lok Sabha (lower house) to scuttle a discussion on the findings of the Sachar Committee.
Mohammad Salim, legislator for the Communist Party of India-Marxist, accused the BJP for doing the same the last time when the report was to be discussed. “We have waited for nine months. We need to have a discussion,” he said. Although the scheduled discussion on the findings of the Sachar Committee could not be held, several Muslim legislators took the opportunity of highlighting their stand on the report.
Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay tabled a statement on it last week in the Lok Sabha. With the Sachar Committee’s primary focus being problems affecting Muslims in India, Muslim legislators are against people of the faith being bracketed with India’s other minority classes.
Referring to the selection of 90 minority districts and 338 identified towns in the ATR, Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi, a Congress member of Parliament, said: “It should be mentioned that, in the context of the Sachar Committee, the districts are Muslim-minority dominated districts.” Saradgi added that there was a need to include in basic services electricity and water supply to households, street sanitation and child care centers.
Several legislators, including Asad Owaisi (Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen), have taken note of the ATR lacking a timeframe, without which the significance of the ATR on the Sachar Committee findings is likely to be confined to paper.
“I appreciate that a reasonable timeframe for implementation of the ATR should be adopted by the government… I suggest that a monitoring mechanism be established within the Parliament itself for the benefit of parliamentarians belonging to both the houses,” said Sardagi.
Discussion on this issue could not held, as the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day without virtually conducting any business.
Despite the government having earlier rejected this request, reiterating the demand for the formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal, legislators belonging to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Third Front stalled proceedings of both houses.
“We want JPC,” was the agitating legislators’ chant. In the Lok Sabha, V.K. Malhotra (BJP), deputy leader of the opposition, voiced his objections to the formation of a committee to study the reservations voiced by the left on the deal. Asserting that the action was not proper, Malhotra said, “It is an insult to the house and the nation.”
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had announced the composition of the committee on late Tuesday.
With Pranab as the conveyor, the 15-member committee includes six members from the Congress party and the Left, and one each from the Rashrtiya Janata Dal, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Nationalist Congress Party.
Members include Cabinet ministers A.K. Antony, P. Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Saifuddin Soz and Prithviraj Chavan of Congress, Lalu Prasad Yadav of (RJD), T.R. Balu (DMK) and Sharad Pawar (NCP). The left will be represented by Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury of CPI-M, A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja of the Communist Party of India, Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and T.J. Chandrachoodan (Revolutionary Socialist Party).
Describing the BJP’s demand as unacceptable, Basudev Acharya (CPM legislator) said: “The BJP’s demand is quite impossible, impractical and cannot be accepted by the government.”
