July 19, 1999
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POLITICS Poll Cry in War Worried that the BJP may gain mileage from the successes in Kargil, the Opposition is keen on a special session of the Rajya Sabha to nail the government. By Sumit Mitra
To pin down the BJP to a discussion on Kargil, the CPI took the lead in suggesting a special session of the Rajya Sabha, the surviving House in which the BJP and its allies are in a minority. At that time, both the Congress and the CPI(M) were lukewarm to the idea, fearing that the request could appear to be motivated so soon after the outbreak of hostilities. However, as the conflict lingered, they revised their stand. "We cannot leave the fate of the country in the hands of an incompetent caretaker government and hence we have demanded a special session of the Rajya Sabha," Congress President Sonia Gandhi said. When President K.R. Narayanan forwarded to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee the Opposition petitions for a Rajya Sabha session to discuss the Kargil issue, an impression gained ground that perhaps the President too wanted it. The demand has become louder since then. At the meeting of chief ministers in the capital on July 7, opinions were sharply divided on calling a Rajya Sabha session, with 13 opposing it and seven supporting it. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot were on their toes to contest the point made by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, an ally of the ruling BJP, that a session of the Rajya Sabha at this time could lead to demoralisation of the armed forces. The chief ministers were expectedly divided along the "political line-of-control". While Farooq and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu supported the BJP line of keeping the discussion on Kargil out of Parliament, the Congress advocacy of an Upper House session was supported by Jyoti Basu and E.K. Nayanar, Marxist chief ministers of West Bengal and Kerala. Basu, who showers epithets like "uncivilised" and "barbaric" on the BJP in his public addresses, was uncharacteristically mild on the Union government. Still, he insisted on a parliamentary discussion. "This will be necessary in the interest of the people, the armed forces and the government." Is a Rajya Sabha session indeed necessary? The BJP argument that it is unwarranted, if not unwanted, is based on the apprehension that it might lead to an exhibition of dissension at a time of crisis, and might lead to the spilling of strategic secrets. Besides, as party spokesman K.L. Sharma says, "With the Lok Sabha dissolved, a session of the Rajya Sabha will be unprecedented." Congress spokesman Ajit Jogi counters this, saying, "We'll not ask the government to give more facts than it wishes." The debate skirts around the moot question of the necessity, in the middle of a military confrontation at the border, of a debate on policy. While some members of the "third front", particularly Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, sought a brief Rajya Sabha session only to express solidarity with the armed forces, the Congress and its left allies have the polls on their mind. Digvijay made his party's intention clear when he said, at the meeting that a Rajya Sabha session was necessary to probe if the Union government knew for a "long time about the infiltration and yet had kept quiet". Jogi said the session might fix the responsibility of Defence Minister George Fernandes for the crisis, "just as Parliament fixed V.K. Krishna Menon's responsibility (in 1962 Sino-Indian war) and he had to quit". With the Lok Sabha dissolved, it is beyond the powers of the Rajya Sabha to foil any government move. But it gives the required numbers to the Congress to pillory the government, as a prelude to the election campaign. The BJP doesn't wish to fight a parliamentary battle with the battle on the mountains still raging. |
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Politics is war without bloodshed,
wrote Mao Zedong. In the Indian context, there is not much scope for politics in the time
of war, when a show of political differences is bad manners. For the opposition parties,
such abstinence is painful if the conflict is prolonged. As the Kargil conflict approached
its third month last week, the Opposition, notably the Congress, was restless as the spell
of enforced quietness ate into the 11 weeks left for the general election. Their fear is
that the BJP may steal the credit for chasing out the Pakistan-backed intruders,
presenting it as "our war". 
