NEW DELHI: The Government on Monday told the Lok Sabha that its decision to table the office-of-profit Bill without any changes was not a slight to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, as he had sent the draft legislation back to Parliament only for reconsideration and had not suggested any amendments.

Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said the President — while returning the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, 2006 — for reconsideration had neither suggested any amendments nor sought a review of specific provisions. "He has only asked for a reconsideration, and so the Government's decision to stick to the original Bill is no disrespect to the President."

Mr. Sibal was the key advocate for the Government's position during the discussion on the Bill. Amid persistent heckling from the Opposition, he said it was difficult to evolve a generic criteria that was fair, just and reasonable for what constituted office of profit. It had been tried in India and elsewhere in the world to little avail, he said.

Union Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj had to read out the Bill twice since the Opposition protested that nothing could be heard over the din.

Opening the discussion, Anantha Kumar (Bharatiya Janata Party) said the Government was trying to bulldoze Parliament into adopting legislation aimed at protecting a few of its own.

Supporting the legislation, Mohan Singh (Samajwadi Party) said Parliament should set up an all-party committee to define office-of-profit and empower the Joint Committee on Office-of-Profit to decide on such issues to avoid frequent amendments.

When the Opposition repeatedly pointed out that Left MPs from West Bengal benefited the most from the Bill, Rup Chand Pal (Communist Party of India-Marxist) used his intervention to assert that the posts held by his party members were not offices of profit.

Prasanna Acharya (Biju Janata Dal) demanded withdrawal of the Bill while Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) linked the opposition to the Bill to the struggle for power as absence of such legislation would result in the disqualification of a large number of members. This would trigger efforts to destabilise the Government, he said.

Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) directed her entire intervention at the CPI(M) members from West Bengal and was full of praise for the stance taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

K. Yerrannaidu (Telugu Desam Party) said the Bill was not for public interest but to protect personal interest and George Fernandes (Janata Dal-United) wondered whether it would stand judicial scrutiny.

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