NEW DELHI, 20 November — The parliament yesterday began a month-long winter session with a call to the world community to unite in the fight to destroy the scourge of global terror.
The special reference to terrorism in both houses set the tone for a session likely to be devoted to an anti-terror law being proposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led ruling coalition and being challenged by the opposition. Both houses are expected to witness fireworks over the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), which the government is keen to push through for being enacted into law.
The main opposition Congress party and other opposition parties have resolved to block the bill in the Rajya Sabha where the BJP-led coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), does not enjoy a majority. A minister said the government had deferred plans to summon an all-party meeting today. Mourning the victims of terrorism in India and other parts of the world, Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi said each such attack was an assault on freedom and democracy.
He added that terrorism was the biggest challenge facing the world today. “It is imperative for the world community to stand together in the fight to destroy and defeat the global terror network, wherever it exists”.
“For us in India, terrorism has a special resonance because we have been its victims for over a decade, and we know what it is like to lose a loved one in a wanton terrorist attack,” he said.
Referring to the Sept. 11 attacks in the US and the Oct.1 attack on the Kashmir Assembly, Balayogi remarked that these had shown to the world just how far and wide the tentacles of terrorism have spread and what resources they had at their command to hit targets not only across borders but also across continents.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Krishan Kant read out an identical statement in condemnation of terrorism. Vajpayee is using all the cards to win support of the Congress leader, Sonia Gandhi for the passage of the POTO in parliament. Yesterday, he went to the other side of the house to exchange pleasantries with her, who was talking with Shivraj Patil, the Congress deputy leader in the house. As the Congress has majority in the Rajya Sabha, without its support, passage of POTO is impossible. Given the political heat of the moment and with Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls round the corner, the Congress is least likely to give in easily on the POTO front without securing some amendments.
Yesterday, the opposition members started shouting “Shame, Shame,” when Vajpayee introduced George Fernandes as the defense minister. Fernandes had resigned in March following the Tehelka defense scam.
However, the parliament was adjourned yesterday as a mark of respect to Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia, who died in a plane crash on Sept. 30, and 17 other sitting and former MPs. The house paid glowing tributes to the memory of Scindia, 56, a nine-time MP, minister in many governments and the deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.
“With the demise of Scindia, we have lost a great parliamentarian and the country has lost one of the most active and charismatic personalities in Indian public life,” Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi said. The Rajya Sabha too expressed deep and heartfelt sorrow at the untimely demise of Scindia.
Krishan Kant said Scindia started his long and distinguished legislative career when he was first elected in 1971 and remained a member in all subsequent Lok Sabha houses. Kant said that in the death of Scindia, the country had lost a young, dynamic mass leader, an able administrator and an eminent parliamentarian.
