NDA not to stall proceedings

Protest against tainted ministers to continue

After boycotting the Railway Budget presented by Laloo Prasad Yadav, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners have decided to participate in the discussions.

According to former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, the NDA, at a meeting on Tuesday decided to set up a five-member committee to devise strategy on how to take the issue of tainted ministers forward, in and outside Parliament.

The committee, comprising Sushil Modi, VK Malhotra, Sushma Swaraj, SS Ahluwalia (all BJP) and Nitish Kumar (JD-U), will give its report tomorrow.

Advani said the meeting felt that the proceedings should be allowed and important issues should be discussed. "This form (stalling of proceedings) of protest will end today. There will be different forms of protest from tomorrow," he said.

He said the NDA decided to give up its strategy of stalling the proceedings "not because of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal but because we felt that we will not be doing justice" by not raising issues in Parliament.

Malhotra said former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the NDA should speak with one voice on issues of tainted ministers and the removal of NDA-appointed governors.

According to sources, the Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's decision to telecast the House proceedings forced the NDA to revise its strategy to avoid the negative fallout of boycotting the vital government business.

"Unlike the Congress, the Left and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, who frequently disrupted the House proceedings during the six-year Vajpayee regime, the NDA believes in the smooth functioning of Parliament. The NDA will perform its duty conscientiously," said resolution passed at the NDA meeting.

But criticising the budget, Malhotra said there was nothing in it except a few populist proposals. "How will the Railways finance new projects with no avenue for raising revenue," he said.

The BJP leader criticised the hike in parcel fares by 7.1 per cent on Rajdhani's saying the hike would hit customers hard. Three quarters of Yadav's speech was on the past achie-vements of the Railways, "in a way it is very flattering of the NDA government," he said.

The Left parties though defended the budget saying Yadav's decision to not hike freight and passenger tariffs was a "courageous step". "This is the first Railway Budget in the past 20 years wherein no hikes in fares and tariffs have been announced," said Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI-M).

Ramdas Athawale (RPI) said although, Yadav in his budget had ignored Maharshtra and the Marathwada region had been ignored. "We wanted that some trains be started to cater to our state," he said.

As an indulgent treasury bench listened to Yadav's speech, he may have thought he was over the worst. With the Opposition now coming back into the House to debate the budget, he may not have a smooth time in future.