'All-party meet needed to discuss propriety issues'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 19. The Government's defeat in the Rajya Sabha today may have no constitutional bearing, but there is a question of ``ethics and propriety.'' And if the Prime Minister is serious about his offer on the floor of the House that the Government and the Opposition should sit together to arrive at an agreed formula on what constitutes propriety and what does not, and under what circumstances ministers should resign, he should call an all- party meeting to discuss this further, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, CPI(M) parliamentary party leader, said today.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Chatterjee spoke on a number of important political issues, regretting that Mr. Vajpayee and the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, had not thought it right to strongly condemn the statement of the Shiv Sena chief, Mr. Bal Thackeray, suggesting that Muslims be disenfranchised. ``The Shiv Sena is very much a part of the Government, it is of serious concern that an NDA constituent has gone several steps ahead of the BJP to demand disenfranchisement of Muslims and not a word has come from the Prime Minister,'' Mr Chatterjee said.

His view was that if Mr. Vajpayee's controversial statements were taken together with other happenings like the open threat of Mr Ashok Singhal of the VHP that the temple would be built at the disputed site in Ayodhya, it would become clear that his statement was ``calculated to arouse communal passions.''

As for his statements in Parliament that his Government would abide by the court verdict, ``that was not a concession on his part, but his constitutional obligation, if he were not to abide by the court verdict he would be violating his oath of office,'' Mr Chatterjee said. The CPI(M) was critical of ``some allies'' (Trinamool Congress) of the BJP who had been supporting ``divisive and secessionist'' anti-national forces at work in Kamtapuri, West Bengal, and Mr. Chatterjee said this had been brought to the notice of the Home Minister.

The ISI, he said, had spread across the North-East, in areas North of Bengal and South in Bangladesh and the CPI(M) had been warning the Centre about this.

The CPI(M) expressed happiness that the efforts of the Left and other parties to get the Government to commit to setting up a National Calamity and Contingency Fund has been successful. To be set up under the Eleventh Finance Commission, initially the Fund is expected to get Rs. 500 crores. But how much of that West Bengal will get to help deal with the flood situation remains a question.

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