Citizens’ Research Collective on SEZ

Statesman News Service

New Delhi, November 19, 2007: Parliament was today rocked by the Nandigram outrage that set off a political storm in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the first working day of the winter session. Furious BJP-led NDA and Trinamul Congress members stridently demanded in vain the suspension of Question Hour for enabling an immediate discussion on the Nandigram situation, forcing adjournment of both Houses for the day.

The proceedings were stalled from the moment the Houses met as slogan-shouting members of the BJP and its allies were on their feet to raise the issue of violence and mayhem in Nandigram. They met with stiff resistance from the CPM MPs in the Lok Sabha.

The agitated NDA members also vociferously highlighted the Nandigram atrocities in the Rajya Sabha, repeatedly trooping into the well, waving a poster that read, ‘Shame!’.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Nandigram, the BJP deputy leader Mr V K Malhotra, said in the Lok Sabha amid turmoil. The House cannot function, he warned, unless the Nandigram issue was taken up. Angry Opposition members did not relent despite the Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, and the Chairman, Mr Hamid Ansari’s repeated pleas to allow the Question Hour.

To counter the Opposition onslaught, the CPM leaders Mr Basudeb Acharia and Mr Mohd Salim tried to raise the issue of the 2002 riots in BJP-ruled Gujarat. Treading cautiously, meanwhile, the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, whose government’s survival depends on the Left’s outside support, refused to comment on the BJP’s charge that the Congress had been silent on the Nandigram outrage because of an alleged trade-off between them over the Left’s softening on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

“These matters are being discussed in Parliament. I would not like to comment,” the PM told reporters. “All these things will come up in Parliament,” Dr Singh said.

While the Left has maintained that they will not allow any Nandigram-specific debate in Parliament because it is a “state subject”, the Congress, while not disagreeing with the demand for the Nandigram discussion, has not displayed any pro-active line on the matter. As the CPM cadres’ alleged bloody takeover of Nandigram, resulting in killings, rapes, arson and displacement of thousands of villagers opposed to their farm land acquisition for any SEZ or industrial project, continued to make waves in national politics, which might result in Parliament being stalled for several more days, the CPM suggested to the NDA to link Nandigram with a discussion on SEZ or Maoist violence.

“There is no precedent that a state law and order subject is discussed in Parliament …If they want to have a discussion under the rules, they should link it up with debates on SEZs or Maoist violence,” the CPM leader Mr Sitaram Yechury said. “Our objection is not against a debate on Nandigram, but against the violation of rules and procedures of Parliament.”

Asked how a parliamentary discussion could be allowed, as demanded by the Left, on the Tehelka expose on the 2002 Gujarat riots, Mr Yechury said this matter could be discussed as it was “an attack on minorities”, an issue concerning a fundamental feature, secularism, of Constitution, which is permitted as per the parliamentary rules.

The CPM leader said the Business Advisory Committees of Parliament discussed the BJP’s adjournment notices which referred to the state governor, Mr Gopalakrishna Gandhi’ statement and the Calcutta High Court verdict on Nandigram. Both these grounds mentioned in the notices are not admissible as per parliamentary rules, he said in a comment endorsed later by the Union parliamentary affairs minister, Mr Priyaranjan Dasmunsi.

Mr Dasmunsi and the Congress spokesman Mr Abhishek Singhvi, however, spoke in favour of a discussion on Nandigram in Parliament only in accordance with rules and procedures and subject to the Speaker and Chairman’s final decision.

The BJP, however, stuck to its demand for a Nandigram-specific discussion, rejecting the CPM’s suggestion to link it with any larger issue.
“First Nandigram, other business,” the BJP leader Mrs Sushma Swaraj said. The party, however, said it was not “adamant” on adjournment of the Lok Sabha or suspension of Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha for discussing the “barbaric” issue.

Mr Malhotra said the Nandigram violence should be a Central concern in light of the governor’s statement and the High Court’s ruling.
Holding that Gujarat riots was discussed in Parliament many times, Mrs Swaraj also said: “In Nandigram also, atrocities were committed on women, peasants and minorities.”

While terming the concerns over nandigram as “genuine and natural”, Mr Dasmunsi called “unfortunate” the NDA’s bid not to honour their agreement with the Speaker’s “apt” observation earlier that the Chair was prepared to look into the nature of a discussion on the issue after the Question Hour.

The Lok Sabha leader, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, was engaged in consultation with the Opposition leader, Mr LK Advani, and others over evolving consensus on the text of the motion, possibly linking Nandigram with Maoist violence in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, to enable a short-duration debate, Mr Dasmunsi said. He added, however, that Mr Advani did not reconcile with its draft as he wanted to weave in references to the governor and the High Court, which, in turn, was not acceptable to the government.

Source: The Statesman