The Hindu : New Delhi News : Congress MLAs do the needful

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Congress MLAs do the needful

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, DEC. 23. While the just concluded winter session of the Delhi Assembly exposed the chinks in the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party's armour, the ruling party MLAs certainly turned the heat on the Sheila Dikshit Government. Not only did the Delhi Government came under attack on various issues including privatisation of power distribution, it also faced the ire of its legislators for turning a blind eye to the promises made in the party manifesto in respect of rural Delhi.

Although the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, did not come under direct attack of the party legislators, but the resentment against her Government and the style of functioning was clearly visible. The session also witnessed the re-emergence of dissident activity within the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) with the voice of protests and number of protestors growing with each passing day. Although the "unhappy legislators'' did not cross the line of discipline or directly criticise the Chief Minister, but they certainly were unhappy with the performance of the Government and the dominance of the bureaucracy. Be it the issue of closure of industries, extension of Lal Dora for villages, waiving off house tax for residential areas in villages or performance of the power companies, the Government was at the receiving end on all these issues forcing it to concede ground on a majority of them.

The session saw the city Congress bigwigs Subhash Chopra and Mukesh Sharma taking on the Government and severely criticising it for failure to protect the interests of the consumers and villagers. The MLAs were particularly harsh on the power distribution companies and the failure of the Government to rein in these companies. The panic in the loyalist camp could be gauged from the incident on the last day of the House. On Wednesday, when discussion on the power situation in Delhi was taken up, the Chief Minister and her loyalists were taken aback when the party MLAs one after another lashed out at the power reforms and the private companies. Sensing big trouble ahead, the Chief Minister's camp suddenly raised the issue of Zahira Sheikh bribery case disrupting the proceedings of the House. After the House re-assembled, it was decided that only one BJP member would speak and the Power Minister, Haroon Yusuf would reply. This way the loyalist camp succeeded in thwarting a discussion on power and preventing its own MLAs from targeting the Government.

Similarly, the Government had to buckle down on the issue of extension of Lal Dora and waiving off house tax for residential property in rural and urban villages due to pressure from the party and the Opposition. In fact, the Nationalist Congress Party MLA, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, emerged as one of the most vocal member who raised the maximum number of issues during the five-day session.

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