No matter what the situation or turn of political events, the Bharatiya Janata Party has made it a habit to say it has emerged victorious. It was no different on Wednesday, the day after the Opposition-sponsored cut motions were voted upon and negatived.
The voting figures (289 for the government and 201 in favour of the cut motions) have established that the BJP, which has a strength of 115 in the Lok Sabha, managed the presence of only 110 members — Ramakant Yadav was in jail and could not come and Baliram Kashyap was too ill to attend, while Makhan Singh Solanki (Madhya Pradesh), Sadanand Gowda and S. Pakkirappa (both from Karnataka) absented themselves for unconvincing reasons.
Incidentally, Mr. Pakkirappa is a cousin of Sriramulu, one of the three powerful and cash-rich Bellary brothers. His absence immediately gave rise to speculation that the Congress could be up to some tricks to destabilise the Yeddyurappa government, which earlier found itself in difficulty when the Bellary brothers had come close to doing exactly this.
There were apparently three abstentions from the National Democratic Alliance ranks — two from the Janata Dal (United) and one from the Shiv Sena — taking the total of NDA absentees to 8, including the BJP, but not counting the two JMM votes, of which one (that of Shibu Soren) went against the Opposition and the other was not cast as Kameshwar Baitha is in jail.
The United Progressive Alliance too had three absentees, one each from the ranks of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Trinamool Congress, parliamentary sources said. But the UPA “made up” the loss through the addition of 20-odd BSP votes and one from the JMM.
The failure of the BJP and the NDA to keep their own flock together, however, did not prevent Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj from claiming a “positive political fallout” for the party.
It “exposed” the UPA government to be in a minority as the government scored 289 votes, crossing the mid-way mark mostly with BSP help. This, the BJP argued, showed up the UPA as being a “non-stable minority government,” an argument that was immediately dismissed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal as “specious” for, the votes in favour of the government were well past the mid-way mark of 273.
The BJP drew comfort also from the “expose” of “misuse” of the Central Bureau of Investigation by the government. Ms. Swaraj alleged that the government had used the CBI to arm-twist the Hindi heartland parties of Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad and Mayawati, all of whom had one criminal case or another pending against them. However, she did acknowledge that these three parties — the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the BSP — were technically still UPA supporters even if they were otherwise hostile to the Congress.
And, of course, as a direct result of the voting, the BJP had to bring down its own coalition government in Jharkhand. Another positive fallout?
Showing posts with label Sushma Swaraj. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sushma Swaraj. Show all posts
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Trouble in BJP over Women’s Bill, party decides to issue whip
Trouble is brewing for the Women’s Reservation Bill with a section of BJP MPs in Lok Sabha expressing their opposition to the measure and threatening to vote against it and the party on Thursday decided to crack on the dissenters by issuing a whip to them to back it.
The BJP top brass swung into damage control and decided to issue a whip to its MPs to make them toe the party line.
Facing rebellion, top party leaders including the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and former party chief Rajnath Singh met the dissenting MPs on Thursday morning and sought to allay their fears over the Bill which seeks to reserve one third of the seats in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women.
“We will issue a whip to party MPs when the bill comes up in Lok Sabha,” Ms. Swaraj said after the meeting. Defiance of the whip can attract disqualification provisions against the members. BJP MPs had supported the measure in Rajya Sabha.
Prominent among those opposing the bill are Yogi Adityanath, MP from Gorakhpur, former Union Minister Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, an old socialist from the Janata Dal parivar, and party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha Ramesh Bais.
Some of the party MPs are even said to have threatened to vote against the measure when it is taken up in the Lower House. The support of BJP, which has 116 members in Lok Sabha, is crucial for the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill.
Mr. Bais, who had maintained on Wednesday that several party MPs had problems with the Bill in its present form and would air their grievances before the senior leaders, today said he had been misunderstood.
Former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said there may have been differences among some sections of the party but once BJP takes a stand everybody will have to go by it.
“In a democratic party, members may have different opinions on an issue and these can be discussed. But on the Bill the party has taken a stand and everybody will have to adhere to it,” he said.
On the issue of a whip to members in the Lok Sabha like it had been done for the party MPs in Rajya Sabha, Mr. Joshi, however, said, “The issue of whether whip should be issued in a democracy is debatable.” Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, who was said to be one of the main opponents of the Bill in the BJP, did a volte-face on Thursday morning, saying “I was with the BJP decision on supporting the Bill when it came in Rajya Sabha and will abide by the party decision when it comes up in Lok Sabha.Whatever I have to say about the Bill, I will say in the party forum,” he told PTI.
When asked about his earlier stand against the Bill, he said, “The press may have thought that since other Yadavs like Lalu and Mulayam are opposed to the Bill, I would be opposed too. Also because I am a socialist like them. But if I was in agreement with them, I would be in their party and would not have joined BJP.”
Yogi Adityanath, who had earlier also aired his views against the Bill, has warned the party that the measure could be a Congress strategy to divert attention from the BJP agenda of taking on the Government on price rise and internal security.
He may finally toe the party line after senior leaders like Mr. Joshi and Mr. Singh talk to him on the issue.
Meanwhile, some of the firefighters in the party are also hoping that the Government will not bring the Bill in Lok Sabha as it wants the finance Bills to be cleared first.
The BJP top brass swung into damage control and decided to issue a whip to its MPs to make them toe the party line.
Facing rebellion, top party leaders including the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and former party chief Rajnath Singh met the dissenting MPs on Thursday morning and sought to allay their fears over the Bill which seeks to reserve one third of the seats in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women.
“We will issue a whip to party MPs when the bill comes up in Lok Sabha,” Ms. Swaraj said after the meeting. Defiance of the whip can attract disqualification provisions against the members. BJP MPs had supported the measure in Rajya Sabha.
Prominent among those opposing the bill are Yogi Adityanath, MP from Gorakhpur, former Union Minister Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, an old socialist from the Janata Dal parivar, and party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha Ramesh Bais.
Some of the party MPs are even said to have threatened to vote against the measure when it is taken up in the Lower House. The support of BJP, which has 116 members in Lok Sabha, is crucial for the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill.
Mr. Bais, who had maintained on Wednesday that several party MPs had problems with the Bill in its present form and would air their grievances before the senior leaders, today said he had been misunderstood.
Former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said there may have been differences among some sections of the party but once BJP takes a stand everybody will have to go by it.
“In a democratic party, members may have different opinions on an issue and these can be discussed. But on the Bill the party has taken a stand and everybody will have to adhere to it,” he said.
On the issue of a whip to members in the Lok Sabha like it had been done for the party MPs in Rajya Sabha, Mr. Joshi, however, said, “The issue of whether whip should be issued in a democracy is debatable.” Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, who was said to be one of the main opponents of the Bill in the BJP, did a volte-face on Thursday morning, saying “I was with the BJP decision on supporting the Bill when it came in Rajya Sabha and will abide by the party decision when it comes up in Lok Sabha.Whatever I have to say about the Bill, I will say in the party forum,” he told PTI.
When asked about his earlier stand against the Bill, he said, “The press may have thought that since other Yadavs like Lalu and Mulayam are opposed to the Bill, I would be opposed too. Also because I am a socialist like them. But if I was in agreement with them, I would be in their party and would not have joined BJP.”
Yogi Adityanath, who had earlier also aired his views against the Bill, has warned the party that the measure could be a Congress strategy to divert attention from the BJP agenda of taking on the Government on price rise and internal security.
He may finally toe the party line after senior leaders like Mr. Joshi and Mr. Singh talk to him on the issue.
Meanwhile, some of the firefighters in the party are also hoping that the Government will not bring the Bill in Lok Sabha as it wants the finance Bills to be cleared first.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
BJP fears Congress running away with all credit
The Bharatiya Janata Party is busy trying to take maximum credit for the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill by the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday even as it openly expressed fears that the Congress would run away with expected positive political fallout.
Leaders of the Opposition in the two Houses of Parliament, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, made it plain they took the initiative to ensure support from almost all the parties of the National Democratic Alliance (minus a section of the Janata Dal – United) and they also insisted on a proper debate and order at the time of voting.
They criticised the vandalism in the Rajya Sabha by those opposing the Bill and claimed it was their initiative that prevented a possible disgraceful presence of marshals in the House during the vote on the Bill.
“The uprooting of microphones, the climbing on the podium of the Chairman was shameful behaviour,” said Ms. Swaraj even as she criticised the Congress for not consulting and taking on board parties of the Opposition that were supporting the Bill. “We learnt from newspapers that the women's Bill constitutional amendment was being brought in in the Rajya Sabha on Monday,” she said. “All that has somewhat clouded my happiness on the passing of the Bill.”
The BJP's charge was that the government was inclined to put the Bill to vote without a debate, which would have also been disgraceful. Mr. Jaitley made the point that it was the BJP that had insisted on a proper debate, after which other parties took the same view. It was also the BJP that objected to presence of marshals when the division was called out and members asked to vote.
The party was also categorical in maintaining that it was committed to this piece of legislation that took to its logical conclusion the process that had begun with reservation for women in panchayats and local bodies. Ms. Swaraj recalled that way back in 1994 after the reservation was provided for women in local bodies, the BJP national council meeting in Vadodara had adopted a resolution supporting political reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. The resolution was moved by the then party president, L.K. Advani, and pushed through without a debate.
Ms. Swaraj also recalled that when she was Parliamentary Affairs Minister in the Vajpayee government and met the then Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, for support for the Bill, Ms. Gandhi had assured her: “I will fully support you. It was my husband's dream.”
Mr. Jaitley was vocal in his support for the principle of rotation of reserved seats envisaged in the Bill and said it would usher in a social revolution, preparing the ground for women leaders throughout the country.
And above all, the party received the go-ahead from its new president Nitin Gadkari, who had called a meeting of the party's core committee to send a strong message to the party cadre that the Bill must be supported by the BJP.
Leaders of the Opposition in the two Houses of Parliament, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, made it plain they took the initiative to ensure support from almost all the parties of the National Democratic Alliance (minus a section of the Janata Dal – United) and they also insisted on a proper debate and order at the time of voting.
They criticised the vandalism in the Rajya Sabha by those opposing the Bill and claimed it was their initiative that prevented a possible disgraceful presence of marshals in the House during the vote on the Bill.
“The uprooting of microphones, the climbing on the podium of the Chairman was shameful behaviour,” said Ms. Swaraj even as she criticised the Congress for not consulting and taking on board parties of the Opposition that were supporting the Bill. “We learnt from newspapers that the women's Bill constitutional amendment was being brought in in the Rajya Sabha on Monday,” she said. “All that has somewhat clouded my happiness on the passing of the Bill.”
The BJP's charge was that the government was inclined to put the Bill to vote without a debate, which would have also been disgraceful. Mr. Jaitley made the point that it was the BJP that had insisted on a proper debate, after which other parties took the same view. It was also the BJP that objected to presence of marshals when the division was called out and members asked to vote.
The party was also categorical in maintaining that it was committed to this piece of legislation that took to its logical conclusion the process that had begun with reservation for women in panchayats and local bodies. Ms. Swaraj recalled that way back in 1994 after the reservation was provided for women in local bodies, the BJP national council meeting in Vadodara had adopted a resolution supporting political reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. The resolution was moved by the then party president, L.K. Advani, and pushed through without a debate.
Ms. Swaraj also recalled that when she was Parliamentary Affairs Minister in the Vajpayee government and met the then Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, for support for the Bill, Ms. Gandhi had assured her: “I will fully support you. It was my husband's dream.”
Mr. Jaitley was vocal in his support for the principle of rotation of reserved seats envisaged in the Bill and said it would usher in a social revolution, preparing the ground for women leaders throughout the country.
And above all, the party received the go-ahead from its new president Nitin Gadkari, who had called a meeting of the party's core committee to send a strong message to the party cadre that the Bill must be supported by the BJP.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
You can’t come up by running down colleagues, Gadkari tells partymen
Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday warned party workers that they could not hope to climb the political ladder even as they hit out at others.
In a strongly worded message to his colleagues, at the National Executive Committee meeting here, Mr. Gadkari said one should not try to gain something for oneself at the expense of others. While trying to get something for oneself, one should never attempt to put down a colleague. Apni rekha badi karo, doosron ki choti nahin.
Quotes Vajpayee
He quoted a poem by the former Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, to drive home the point that small minds could not achieve greatness and those whose will was broken could not stand on their feet. Chote manse koi badi baat nahin hoti, toote manse koi khada nahin hota. It was in this context he said there was no reason for the BJP to be in despair though it had lost two successive Lok Sabha elections. After all, the party was running governments on its own or with allies in nine States.
Mr. Gadkari attacked the Congress for being “soft on terrorism,” especially AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh’s visit to the “villages of terrorists in Azamgarh [in Uttar Pradesh],” spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted the BJP chief as having said, although he admitted that the party’s approach to security issues and terrorism had not paid off in both 2004 and 2009, with the BJP crying hoarse over the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act brought in by the Vajpayee government. But “we cannot stop talking about national security [just] because we lost the election,” Mr. Prasad said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Gadkari began his day in Madhya Pradesh with a visit to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s birthplace in Mau, a signal that he would try and woo the Scheduled Castes back to the party. Especially in Uttar Pradesh, where the party has not only lost whatever support it may have had among Dalits but is also wary of the upper castes moving towards the Congress.
In his address at the National Executive, Mr. Gadkari said fighting untouchability was not a matter of vote-bank politics for the BJP, but one of social commitment to egalitarianism.
With the recent Pune terrorist strike and naxal violence in West Bengal as reference points, Mr. Gadkari focussed on security, talking about the “red corridor” from Pashupatinath in Nepal to Tirupati in south India.
Quota for women
Earlier, the former BJP president, Rajnath Singh, talked about the ups and downs of the party during his tenure and mentioned that it was the only party which reserved 33 per cent of all posts for women, from the mandal level to national office-bearers and the National Executive Committee (the move was made during his term).
In a strongly worded message to his colleagues, at the National Executive Committee meeting here, Mr. Gadkari said one should not try to gain something for oneself at the expense of others. While trying to get something for oneself, one should never attempt to put down a colleague. Apni rekha badi karo, doosron ki choti nahin.
Quotes Vajpayee
He quoted a poem by the former Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, to drive home the point that small minds could not achieve greatness and those whose will was broken could not stand on their feet. Chote manse koi badi baat nahin hoti, toote manse koi khada nahin hota. It was in this context he said there was no reason for the BJP to be in despair though it had lost two successive Lok Sabha elections. After all, the party was running governments on its own or with allies in nine States.
Mr. Gadkari attacked the Congress for being “soft on terrorism,” especially AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh’s visit to the “villages of terrorists in Azamgarh [in Uttar Pradesh],” spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted the BJP chief as having said, although he admitted that the party’s approach to security issues and terrorism had not paid off in both 2004 and 2009, with the BJP crying hoarse over the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act brought in by the Vajpayee government. But “we cannot stop talking about national security [just] because we lost the election,” Mr. Prasad said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Gadkari began his day in Madhya Pradesh with a visit to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s birthplace in Mau, a signal that he would try and woo the Scheduled Castes back to the party. Especially in Uttar Pradesh, where the party has not only lost whatever support it may have had among Dalits but is also wary of the upper castes moving towards the Congress.
In his address at the National Executive, Mr. Gadkari said fighting untouchability was not a matter of vote-bank politics for the BJP, but one of social commitment to egalitarianism.
With the recent Pune terrorist strike and naxal violence in West Bengal as reference points, Mr. Gadkari focussed on security, talking about the “red corridor” from Pashupatinath in Nepal to Tirupati in south India.
Quota for women
Earlier, the former BJP president, Rajnath Singh, talked about the ups and downs of the party during his tenure and mentioned that it was the only party which reserved 33 per cent of all posts for women, from the mandal level to national office-bearers and the National Executive Committee (the move was made during his term).
Saturday, January 23, 2010
BJP to launch nation-wide agitation against price rise: Sushma
BJP would launch a nation-wide agitation from February 1 to protest against rise in prices of essential commodities, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said here on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference here, she attributed “wrong” policies of the UPA government as reason for the sky-rocketing prices of essential items.
Terming the recent comment of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that he cannot predict when the prices of sugar would come down as “irresponsible”, the senior BJP leader alleged that it was only due to the wrong policies of the UPA government that has now resulted in spiralling prices of food items.
She wanted to know what measures Union Government had taken to check the price rise.
Even pulses and sugar which are mostly used by common people have become dearer and the Centre has totally “failed” to control the price rise, the former Union minister said.
Stating that the party would raise the issue in the Parliament, she said “the party would play its role effectively as the people have given us responsibility to keep a watch on the actions of the government... where as the UPA got the mandate to rule the nation.”
The party would definitely raise the price rise issue inside and outside the Parliament, she said adding “We would hold nation-wide agitations for a fortnight from February 1, to protest the Centre’s failure to check price rise”.
