The Government had to cut a sorry figure in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday when the Opposition and some parties supporting the UPA forced the treasury to refer to the Standing Committee a bill granting powers to the Election Commission on delimitation of SC and ST constituencies.
law Minister Ashwani Kumar made all efforts to seek the approval of the House to pass the Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Bill, 2013, urgently as it was to replace an Ordinance which would expire around April 4.
BSP leader Satish Mishra was the first member to raise an objection about the procedure of getting the bill passed and urged the government to refer it to the Standing Committee for broad political consensus.
Backing his argument, leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley said the Government went into a “slumber” after the Supreme Court passed a judgement on delimitation in January last year.
He said an ordinance is generally promulgated in exceptional circumstances and charged the Government with “laxity” in acting late. He also contended that the legislative procedures could not be bypassed and even the Supreme Court had not asked the government to do so.
Stating that delimitation is a complicated exercise, Jaitley asked the Government to refer the bill to the Standing Committee and seek consensus instead of insisting on an ordinance. He said there was still time left for the Ordinance to expire and “the Minister should go by the sense of the House and hold consultations on the Bill.”
Members from various parties — including SP and CPI(M) — also objected to rushing through the crucial legislation. However, Kumar pleaded with the members to pass the Bill as it sought to replace an Ordinance promulgated by the Government to bring the Supreme Court judgement into effect.
Initially ignoring the members’ views, the Minister finally conceded to refer the Bill to the Standing Committee for scrutiny within a specified timeframe. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said going by the sense of the House and the Minister yielding to the members’ demand, the matter will be referred to the Standing Committee and the Chairman will fix the timeframe for dealing with the issue.
Earlier, Ramgopal Yadav(SP) said the Bill will have long-term implications and the need of the hour is to proceed cautiously as many constituencies with lesser SC and ST population were reserved while others with more population of SC and ST were declared general.
This prompted his party colleague Naresh Agarwal to say Rae Bareli would be one such constituency which would be reserved, going by the population of SCs/STs. “This is an exercise to save the Rae Bareli constituency,” Agarwal said prompting Congress members to raise strong objections.
Sitaram Yechury(CPI-M) said he was questioning the procedure of introduction of the Bill on such an important matter and pointed out that Parliament is supreme body to form laws.