Government rejects demand.
Throwing down the gauntlet to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on price rise, a united Opposition has demanded an unprecedented adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. This involves voting at the end of the debate. The government managers so far have not yielded to this demand.
“These discussions do not lie under (the purview of) adjournment motion,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal told reporters. Accusing the Opposition of being not fair on the issue, he said the government was not afraid to face any motion. “We are very confident. We are going to last for five years. There is no fear of anything...,” he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left, the Samajwadi Party and its arch rival the Bahujan Samaj Party and outside supporters like Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) joined hands and went to meet Speaker Meira Kumar to press for an adjournment motion. “Nothing less than this motion is acceptable to us. If the government wants to run the House smoothly, it must accept this proposal,” Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and CPI(M)’s leader in Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia told Speaker Meira Kumar.
An adjournment motion would mean that the House would have to suspend all other businesses and take up the debate on price rise on a priority basis. At the end of the debate, the Speaker would call for a vote to decide if the motion is accepted or rejected. Acceptance of an adjournment motion would be a major embarrassment for the Congress-led coalition government. It would show that not just the Opposition but also supporters of the Congress-led UPA are censuring the government over the issue of price rise.
In the 544-member strong Lok Sabha, the Opposition has already garnered support of at least 269 members. The majority mark in the Lok Sabha is 273. The BJP (116 MPs), Samajwadi Party (22), BSP (21), Janata Dal (United) (20), CPI(M) (16), BJD (14), Shiv Sena (11), AIADMK (9), TDP (6), Rashtriya Lok Dal (5), CPI (4), Shiromani Akali Dal (4), RJD (4), Janata Dal (Secular) (3), Forward Bloc (2), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (2), RSP (2), TRS (2) and six other MPs will oppose the government on this issue.
As soon as the House was adjourned for the day, the Opposition parties met the Speaker separately and insisted on the adjournment motion later at the Lok Sabha’s Business Advisory Committee meeting. The Opposition’s logic is: The issue of price rise has been discussed earlier under Rule 193 (without voting). The current crisis requires special attention and, as it is the biggest problem facing the country, all other business of the House should be suspended.
A reluctant government’s counter point is: More time can be devoted to the issue if it is placed under Rule 193 for a short discussion. Price rise is not a new issue but has been a problem for the past few years. So, an adjournment motion on this topic should not be allowed.
In a closed-doors meeting, RJD’s Lalu Prasad said, in recent times, only one bandh had been successful in Bihar and that was on price rise. The biggest ally of the Congress in the government, Trinamool Congress (with 19 MPs), came in support of the government and said the discussion should be held without voting.
Speaker Meira Kumar will take the final call tomorrow. But ahead of the Budget, the unity in the Opposition camp is a cause of concern for the Congress. It also puts the Congress allies in a fix as they had been critical about the Congress for failure in controlling prices.
The government managers feel the demand is unprecedented, as the motion of thanks on President’s speech is generally taken as the first issue for debate in the Parliament after the Budgets are tabled.
