Advani to spearhead NDA onslaught on UPA govt

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani seems determined to save at least one of his jobs during the monsoon session of Parliament.

Unlike the previous sessions of the 14th Lok Sabha, he is going to be a constant fixture in the House.

He fired the first salvo at the government by submitting an adjournment motion on the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983, which had earlier been struck down by the Supreme Court.

The government decision to extend the central rule in Bihar for another six months and the Supreme Court notice to the central government questioning the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly, led to another adjournment motion being moved by Advani.

The BJP seems determined to wipe out memories of their ineffectual boycott of the Budget Session. The UPA government used the absence of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to clear all contentious legislations with the Left parties acting as a token Opposition.

"We have listed the Prime Minister's speech at Oxford praising the British Raj as a topic for debate in the Rajya Sabha. We will also raise issues like situation in Bihar, rise of terrorism and the Manipur blockade in the Lok Sabha," said VK Malhotra, BJP parliamentary party spokesperson.

While, according to sources, the adjournment motion over the IMDT Act is likely to be accepted, the BJP has sought a discussion on Bihar under Section 196.

"The government appeared in a hurry to extend President's rule in Bihar. The earlier Ordinance was set to expire as late as September 6," added Malhotra. "We will raise this as well as the Supreme Court's notice to the central government, which is a slap to the government," he added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visits to the US and to Gleneagles for the G-8 summit will also be discussed as well as the Indo-US nuclear pact.

The BJP said it was going to wrest back the Opposition's space that it had "almost yielded" to the Left. "Advani is going to be in Parliament everyday this session," said a close aide of the BJP president.

During the last session Advani had often depended on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to take over on his behalf, or a thoroughly inadequate Malhotra or Ananth Kumar.

"The government seems to be in a haste to draw the curtains on the issue but we will raise it vociferously in the Lok Sabha through an adjournment motion", he said.

"The Bihar House had been dissolved even before its constitution. It was a criminal act on the governor's part not to have called Nitish Kumar to form the government despite having support of majority legislators", Malhotra said.

Malhotra said the party would also raise in both Houses the government's "failure" to contain terrorism including the attack on Ayodhya besides the deteriorating situation in Manipur including the government's "paralytic" response.