RANCHI/BOMBAY, 25 March 2006 — Amid bedlam by the opposition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Jharkhand yesterday passed a bill to protect the membership of legislators who also hold offices of profit and thereby save its own skin.
The Jharkhand Legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Bill 2006 was introduced in the light of the opposition demand to disqualify four NDA legislators who also hold offices of profit.
The NDA government, which enjoys a wafer thin majority in the 82-member house, would have fallen if the legislators were disqualified.
The bill assumes significance in the wake of the sensational resignation of Congress party President Sonia Gandhi Thursday as member of Parliament from Rae Bareli and as chairperson of National Advisory Council (NAC) on the very same grounds.
When the bill was introduced in the Jharkhand Assembly yesterday, opposition members trooped into the well of the house and upturned chairs. They started shouting slogans against the government and Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari.
Under the new bill, the posts held by legislators in boards, corporations and other such offices will be not be counted under the category of office-of-profit.
A total of 22 posts have been included in the list, which will prevent the disqualification of any legislator.
The opposition had earlier met Gov. Syed Sibte Razi and demanded the disqualification of four legislators. Source in the governor’s house said he had sent the opposition’s petition to the Election Commission and sought its view.
After the bill was passed, the opposition leaders held an emergency meeting. They decided to meet the governor again with a request to direct Chief Minister Arjun Munda to resign as he is also holding an office of profit. Reacting to the bill, state Congress state president and legislator Pradeep Balmuchu told reporters: “It is an unprecedented move. We are shocked that the bill has been passed in such haste.”
“If the legislators of NDA had been disqualified, the government would have fallen. The bill has been passed to protect the government which is in minority,” he said.
“We will seek the intervention of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,” he said.
Meanwhile, rumors were doing round in Bombay that Suresh Kalmadi, who is in Melbourne, would be the second politician to bow out of his “office-of-profit” after Gurudas Kamat, the Bombay Regional Congress Committee president, and Member of Parliament.
Kalmadi is an MP and president of the Indian Olympic Association.
The office-of-profit controversy snowballed yesterday with Kapila Vatsyayan, chairperson of the Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts, resigning as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house). Vatsyayan, who was sworn in as Rajya Sabha MP only last week, sent her resignation letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat yesterday.
Earlier, Thursday, president of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and a member of the upper house, Karan Singh, resigned form his seat in the house after Sonia’s resignation from the Parliament Thursday after the opposition charged she had wrongfully held another salaried public post.
Sonia’s decision to quit her parliamentary seat to avoid a conflict of interest has seen her regain the moral high ground but her party remains tarnished, analysts said yesterday.
“She’s signaling that she is not interested in power and in Indian politics that makes her influence and capability actually go up,” said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.
“She is now sitting pretty.” Sonia cited her “inner conscience” when she stepped down in a move that echoed her decision not to become prime minister after leading the Congress to an upset victory in the 2004 election. “Following the principles of probity and my inner conscience I am resigning my post in the Parliament,” Sonia said Thursday, adding however she would run again for the seat in the elected lower house.
Right-wing opponents had charged that Sonia was breaking regulations by holding both posts and that the Congress adjourned Parliament so it could push through a Cabinet ordinance to save her.
Rangarajan said the unexpected resignation had put the opposition in a bind.
“They banked their strategy on her holding on,” said Rangarajan. “Now all that goes out of the window.”
But yesterday, cartoons in Indian newspapers depicted Sonia wearing a halo and published letters from readers praising her.
“Sonia deserves to be congratulated for the sense of propriety she has displayed,” said A.P. Govindakutty in a letter to The Hindu newspaper.
