A day after the BSP announced its support to the GST Bill, the JD(U) too on Tuesday backed the Government’s economic reform measures, but the Opposition remained unrelenting in pulling up the NDA Government in the Rajya Sabha over the issue of intolerance and some of its Ministers making controversial remarks thereby not adhering to the principles of the Constitution and teachings of its framer BR Ambedkar.
Raising these issues during the final day of the three-day debate on ‘Commitment to India’s Constitution,’ the members also charged the Government with trying to rewrite history and not honouring the role played by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi in shaping the Constitution and gaining Independence from British.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O’Brien also criticised leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for questioning the importance of the Rajya Sabha and said he(Jaitley) was indulging in “cowboy constitutionalism.”
Taking objection to Jaitley’s reported remarks outside the House on whether an unelected House override the decision of the elected House, Brien said the leader of the House makes statements “demeaning” the Rajya Sabha.
Jaitley clarified that the debate about bicameral system was on various parts of the world including the UK and Italy and the relationship between the two houses is a constitutional issue and not “cowboy constitutionalism” as suggested by the TMC leader.
He backed his remark by saying that the NDA Government had brought in most number of ordinances in the last one and half years of its rule as compared to other regimes and said it was a case of “cowboy constitutionalism”. Giving statistics, O’Brien said while the average for the last 50 years was one or 1.9 ordinances for every ten Bills introduced in Parliament, the NDA record stood at three per ten Bills.
While charging the BJP for trying to “worm” into the Independence struggle and related history, the TMC leader also got into a brief spat with the left parties when he questioned their role during the freedom movement.
left members including T K Rangarajan and Tapan Sen countered O’Brien’s accusation and said Communists sacrificed their lives for the country during that movement and were honest enough to admit their mistakes which no other political party has done so far.
Urging the NDA Government to be tolerant, JD-U leader KC Tyagi asked the NDA Government to give due credit to leaders Nehru and said he was architect of modern India and spurred rapid industrialisation.
Blaming successive regimes for not doing enough for the uplift of downtrodden and minorities, Tyagi said the statesmanship of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru convinced Kashmiri Muslims to opt for India when the country was partitioned in 1947.
Attacking the BJP over the issue of “Hindu Rashtra,” Tyagi cited the low representation of Muslims in political and consitutional posts and castigated some BJP leaders for their ‘Pakistan’ remarks, reminding that Indian Muslims did not go to Pakistan during partition despite having the option.
While assuring the Government of JD-U support to Goods and Services Tax(GST) Bill, Insurance Bill (on raising FDI cap to from 26 49 percent)and Coal and Mines (Bills), Tyagi asked the government to rein in some of their ministers to respect the Constitution. He claimed these ministers had in the recent past made disparaging remarks against the Muslims and said Dadri incident where one person was killed was not an accident or an incident. Tyagi was of the opinion that the killing was due to rising social tension due to intolerance. BSP chief Mayawati had announced her support to the GST Bill on Monday.
As regards Jaitley’s assertion while initiating the discussion last week that what would have Ambedkar done in present day scenario on various issues, Tyagi said Ambedkar would have never told even his opponents that they will be sent to Pakistan as some of the NDA Ministers had reportedly said.
On the plight of downtrodden, Tyagi and O’Brien drew the attention of the House to social inequality and said more than one million people were still engaged in manual scavenging despite India becoming free 68 years ago. Moreover, untouchability was still practiced, the two leaders said and called urgent steps to improve the status of these people.
Hussain Dalwai(Congress) said he will start a movement against a ban on entry of non-Muslims into Mecca, Saudi Arabia and urged the Government to end such discrimination for non-Hindus and scheduled castes in some temples of the country.
Highlighting the role of Ambedkar in framing the Constitution, Ramdas Athawale(RPI-A) provided some comic relief when he said the Narendra Modi will not fall till he was supporting it like he did for the UPA Government.