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Wednesday, Dec 22, 2004

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Lalu issue: Opposition demands statement, walks out

By Our New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI, DEC. 21. The Opposition today sought to nail the Government in Parliament over its refusal to drop the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, from the Union Cabinet after the Election Commission (EC) lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against him in a bribery case. Demanding a statement from the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the Opposition staged a walkout in both Houses to protest against the Government's attempt to wash its hands off the issue on the premise that the case was under the purview of the EC.

In the Lok Sabha, the BJP sought to raise the issue at the very start of the proceedings, with Sushil Modi demanding Mr. Prasad's immediate dismissal. Later, when the matter was allowed to be raised after Question Hour, the Opposition charge was led by the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who demanded to know from Dr. Singh when he would drop Mr. Prasad from his Cabinet and why he had not sought his resignation as yet.

Amid continuous heckling from across the floor with members of the ruling benches countering the Opposition with reminders of the "sari stampede" in Lucknow — Mr. Vajpayee's constituency — ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Speaker allowed the issue to be discussed for nearly half-an-hour during which the Leader of the House and Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, intervened twice to say that with the Model Code of Conduct being in place, it was an issue to be decided by the EC.

Underscoring the fact that Mr. Prasad headed an important political party, he said: "It is not for the Prime Minister or anyone else to decide. The question of collective responsibility does not arise." Also, he maintained that the EC had not conclusively found anyone guilty as yet and advocated against Parliament interfering with the functioning of another constitutional body.

Morality in public life

Unhappy with the Government's response, Mr. Vajpayee again intervened, articulating the need for morality in public life.

Pointing a finger at Raghunath Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) — who said his party president had only given money to poor people on request — the former Prime Minister said: "What good work was Mr. Prasad doing?"

Holding forth for a while, he signed off by saying: "The Leader of the House has disappointed us, but we have some hope still from the Prime Minister."

Accusations

Earlier, during the course of the discussion, accusations flew thick and fast, with Devendra Prasad Yadav (RJD) questioning the double standards of the Opposition.

"When they were in Government, they had so many chargesheeted Ministers, including the Home Minister, L.K. Advani, himself. How many of them stepped down," he asked; drawing an immediate response from Haren Pathak (BJP), who said he had resigned the day he was chargesheeted.

In the Rajya Sabha, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said Mr. Prasad had been given time till 3 p.m. on December 24 by the EC to reply to the show-cause notice.

He informed the House that he had spoken to the Minister over telephone this morning and had read out the text of the notice to him.

Mr. Azad said the show-cause notice was given to Mr. Prasad in his capacity as RJD president and not as Union Minister. "Let him reply to the show-cause notice, we will put the same reply before the House," he said.

The issue was raised by the Leader of the Opposition, Jaswant Singh, who wanted to know what action the Government proposed to take against the Minister who had an FIR lodged against him for reportedly distributing money.

Mr. Azad said the issue was in the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee and did not want to link it to the action initiated by the Election Commission. But, as in the case in the Lok Sabha, the Government's stance did not cut any ice and the Opposition staged a walkout amid noisy scenes.

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