NEW DELHI, 23 July 2006 — The controversial office-of-profit bill is likely to mark the beginning Parliament’s monsoon session tomorrow on a stormy note as the government has rejected changes suggested by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and returned the bill to the house.
“The government will move a motion with the bill as it is and the president’s suggestions in Parliament for its consideration,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told reporters after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday.
Dasmunsi denied that the government’s refusal to make changes in the bill would amount to disrespecting the president’s reference, which was sent under Article 111 of the Constitution.
“The president’s is the highest respected office in the land. His message should be recorded and debated in Parliament with due respect. The bill is now Parliament’s property,” the minister said.
The Cabinet meeting was specially called yesterday with the single point agenda of discussing the bill. The prime minister is expected to meet Kalam to apprise him of the Cabinet decision.
After being passed by Lok Sabha on May 16 and the Rajya Sabha on May 17, the bill was sent to the president for his assent on May 25.
Kalam, however, returned it back to Parliament on May 30 with the message that it should be reconsidered for “comprehensive and generic” criteria. The criteria should be “fair and reasonable” and applicable in a “clear and transparent” manner across all states and union territories, Kalam had said.
Kalam had also questioned a clause giving the bill retrospective effect. The president expressed his apprehension over the legality of passing legislation exempting offices of profit that are already under the Election Commission’s scrutiny.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expressed some reservation over the re-introduction of the bill, which provides for exclusion of 56 posts from the list of offices of profit.
Manmohan Singh had told the media on his return to India from St. Petersburg after attending the G8 Summit that Parliament would discuss the president’s suggestions.
Controversy over the issue hit headlines when Bollywood star and Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan was disqualified from Rajya Sabha for holding two posts simultaneously. Bachchan was the chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Film Development Corporation besides being a member of the Rajya Sabha.
The Election Commission recommended disqualification of Bachchan following a complaint by an Uttar Pradesh Congress leader who had lost to her in the election to the upper house.
Following that Congress President Sonia Gandhi resigned from her Parliament seat and as chairperson of National Advisory Council, when the opposition labeled the latter position as an office of profit. Since then, the Congress-led government has been planning the bill to exempt certain positions from being considered as offices of profit.
Soon after return of Sonia to the Lok Sabha in May, after being re-elected from Rai Bareli, the government focused on the bill and received a jolt when the president sent it back for reconsideration.
