President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's decision last night to return the Office of Profit Bill to Parliament for reconsideration of the criteria and the retrospective clause poses a huge dilemma for the Election Commission: what should it do with the over 200-odd petitions against MPs and MLAs lying before it when there is now technically no law to protect those whom the Bill had sought to rescue?
Questions: Should Sonia Gandhi be disqualified with the same speed that was shown in the case of Jaya Bachchan? Should Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee be disqualified despite his diatribe against the EC for entertaining a complaint against him which now stands so grandly exposed? Should the monsoon session of Parliament be advanced as demanded by the Left so that the Bill can be voted again and sent to the President? Or should the EC mercilessly act against all and sundry even at the cost of a constitutional crisis?
Shameless politicians, Conspicuous swindle and do we still need reasons to bring them down?
Surely, if EC has any sanity left in it and can stand up to the values of democracy – it will act mercilessly against all. If the EC is just another weakling in the whole setup, then god save us Indians.
President Kalam’s move will have a salutary effect in that the UPA government will now not rush into a Bill on the reservation issue. That said, what we are seeing is a classic problem: of members of the legislature trying to grab executive positions. MPs and MLAs are elected to go and make policy. They are expected to debate and discuss bills before they are passed. As the President’s move shows, they are not doing enough of that. And they are all too keen to become chairman of some organisation or the other.
But I suspect if we can have a uniform set of criteria at the Centre and in the States. Because of the constitutional amendment that bars the size of ministries from exceeding 15 per cent of the size of the legislature, because we now live in the era of fractured mandates and coalition governments, chief ministers have to do the balancing act. Accommodating some MLAs as chairmen of boards and corporations may be an imperative if only in the interests of democratic stability and to provide representation to various groups, parties, and regions.
Should Sonia be disqualified? No. Because even if the retrospective clause is removed, she has resigned and been re-elected. There is a gap in tenure. She is a smarter cookie than what the BJP hotheads are willing to admit.
With the Supreme Court (SC)stepping in issuing notice to the UPA govt questioning the basis concerning the policy decision on reservation for OBCs in the wake of admitting the petition filed by two advocates challenging the validity of the Constitution’s 93rd Amendment Act 2005, the issue has assumed another dimension. No doubt at the same time the SC has appealed to the striking doctors that they should call off the strike or the possibility of facing the comtempt of court. However, the striking doctors remain defiant. With this it has reached a delicate stage. Also the parallel developmnet with the President Kalam sending back the bill on Office of Profit, the govt is finding itself cornered and its hidden agenda has been exposed.Perhaps, it is his way of expressing unhappiness that govt is playing politics though he has refrained from saying anything about the trauma through which the youth of the country is going through. He must be understandably upset because he has a special relation with the youth who consider him as their role model and certainly he would be dismayed if the youth of the country becomes increasingly cynical and disillusioned. In that case his Vision 2020 will only remain a dream. Also the govt is seeking the help of the Railway and Army doctors besides going through fresh recruitment In this enviroment, it is difficult to predict how it impacts on the on going agitation. However, one thing is ceratin that it emboldens the agitating doctors and others who joined them. It is another matter that the govt with its enormous clout may succeed in breaking the protest but it will have come at a heavy cost of the longtime interest of the Nation. Now everybody is looking up to the Prime Minister and this is the opportunity when he can at one stroke wipe out all the criticism directed against him and resurrect his badly dented image by taking bold decision to sack HRD Minister. Will he or won’t he is the big question.