The Hindu : Judev, PSU issues may dominate winter session

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 01, 2003

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Judev, PSU issues may dominate winter session

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI NOV. 30. The Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi, has called a meeting of leaders of all political parties on Monday evening ahead of the winter session of Parliament beginning on Tuesday. The session promises to be a stormy one. Such a meeting of party leaders ahead of a Parliament session is customary and is held in the hope of setting the right tone for the session. The Congress has made clear its intention to raise the CBI's alleged "inaction" against the former Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Dilip Singh Judev, who was seen on a VCD allegedly accepting money.

It is also expected to bring up the issue of Ministerial interference in the running of public sector undertakings. Added to this is the heat generated over the Telgi scam, which has seen charges and counter-charges being made in recent weeks.

Given the Samajwadi Party's growing proximity with the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party's increasingly warm ties with the Congress, this session will also put on display the shifting yet fluid political equations.

The Treasury benches will also try to turn the tables on the Opposition by pointing out that the fake stamp paper scandal has surfaced to a large extent in the Congress-ruled States of Maharashtra and Karnataka. However, the skeletons tumbling out of the Nashik Security Press, which functions under the direct control and supervision of the Finance Ministry, suggest that the ruling coalition will find it hard to pin this one on the Opposition.

As the winter session this year is truncated because of the Assembly elections, the Government may not be able to push through much of its legislative business, given the dominant mood in political circles. The Women's Reservation Bill has been hanging fire for a long time, and although it is "prioritised" each session, there seems to be little chance that it will be enacted.

However, the Government will have to replace the ordinance amending the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The attitude of parties which were opposed to POTA in the first place (the Congress, the Left parties, the Rashtriya Janata Dal) and others who had supported it but now want a repeal of the Act (DMK, MDMK) remains to be seen.

Normally, the winter session is the one in which much of the legislative business of the year is wrapped up even though proceedings have been routinely disrupted for a couple of days over the past decade owing to the Babri Masjid demolition anniversary falling mid-session.

Though December 6 this year is a Saturday, its eve or the following Monday will invariably see the Opposition in both Houses bringing up the Ayodhya issue amid cries of "Jai Sri Ram" from the ruling benches.

While proceedings on Day One will, in all likelihood, be adjourned in memory of the former Union Minister, Murasoli Maran, results of the Assembly elections held in four States are bound to keep the members preoccupied on December 4.

And, whichever way the polls swing, an echo will inevitably be heard in Parliament as the elections have been seen by the two dominant political formations as a forerunner to next year's main battle of the ballot.

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