Office of profit: Law ministry to make additions to list

Brushing aside the Left allies' suggestion to constitute a special committee to redefine the office-of-profit (OoP), the UPA government today left it to the law ministry to make additions to the list (of exempted offices) under Section 3 of the Prevention of Disqualification Act, 1959.

The Union Cabinet today decided that Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee will hold consultations with political parties and MPs in the next two days and the law ministry will accordingly make additions in the list of offices that are not to be considered as OoP.

"The additions (to the list of exemptions) will be deemed to have been approved by the Cabinet. We are bringing the legislation next week to make amendment to Section 3 of the 1959 Act," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said in a press briefing.

To build a political consensus on this issue, Pranab Mukherjee had earlier written to different political parties seeking their opinion. Most of the parties including the Left allies, however, failed to reply to his letter.

Had the Cabinet not decided to take a short-cut by authorising the law ministry to make additions after only two days of political consultations, the government would have found it difficult to pass the legislation in this session of the Parliament, which will effectively have barely five to six days to transact business.

Although there is consensus among political parties on the need to redefine the OoP, there is divergence of views as to how to go about it. Left suggestions to set up a committee to redefine the OoP would similarly delay the entire process.

If this legislation were to be deferred to the next session, it would have had serious implications not only for the MPs concerned but, more importantly, also for the National Advisory Council (NAC), which, without Congress President Sonia Gandhi at its helm, has become toothless.

Earlier in the day, the four Left parties, which met here today, demanded an all-party committee to examine and redefine the OoP under the Constitution, the separation of legislative and executive powers and whether MPs should hold non-legislative offices.

Emerging from the meeting, CPI general secretary AB Bardhan had complained that the Left parties are yet to get any draft of what exactly the government proposed to do.

The UPA allies apparently expected comprehensive discussions and deliberations on this legislation. Asked about the government's move in case there was no political consensus in the two days, Dasmunshi said, "If there is no consensus, fine. There are only two devices in a democracy."

The meeting also discussed the issue of wheat imports. Bardhan said after the meeting that the government owes an explanation to the people as to why it decided to import wheat.

The Left parties, which maintained a studied silence on this issue until today, have now decided to turn the heat on the government by linking this issue with broader issues relating to the agrarian crisis.

"We are going to take it up in the Parliament. The issue of wheat imports is linked with many other serious issues including the crisis in agriculture sector, plight of farmers who are resorting to committing suicide and drawbacks in the public distribution system (PDS). All these issues will come up in the Parliament," said CPI national secretary D Raja.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Left parties today urged the UPA government to immediately come out against the financial blockade of the Palestinian people and extend concrete assistance to the Palestinian Authority. They expressed strong disapproval at the manner in which Israel, the US and the EU stopped funds to the Palestinian Authority after the victory of the Hamas.

"There can be differences with the Hamas on its ideology and platform, but to inflict sufferings on the Palestinian people makes a mockery of the US and EU's claim to uphold democracy," the Left parties said in a statement.