NEW DELHI:The call for an all-party meeting by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu has put Congress in a fix.
It remains undecided whether the party would attend or boycott the meeting. Unless a substantial number of parties are on board to back its stand, the Congress may end up looking like a lone ranger with only the Left for company. Not known to be much of a status-quo breaker, Sonia Gandhi, however, is not very comfortable about keeping Parliament in disarray for too long. But with the young brigade in the Lok Sabha convinced that the ‘Monsoon disruption’ is the best way to keep the focus on the party, she has little choice other than calling a core-committee meeting.
And that’s what she has done. By calling senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma, her political secretary Ahmed Patel, Kapil Sibal and also Rahul Gandhi, she now wants to take a more ‘reasoned view’ on the issue. Unable to attend Sunday’s core-committee meeting, AK Antony will give his views at the party’s parliamentary board meeting on Monday.
But the general consensus in the Congress seems to be that it will be seeking an intervention from Prime Minister. Nothing else would do. “Unless, the PM gives a substantive assurance (on the issue) of action, there’s no question of stepping back from our demand,’’ Azad said.
In the last two days, the government, however, has unleashed a no-holds-bar counter attack. The Congress feels that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement in Lok Sabha ‘dredging up Sushil Kumar Shinde’s Hindu terror remark’ is an ‘attempt to browbeat’ the party into submission in Parliament. “It is a concerted effort to corner us on an emotive issue,’’ a former Congress MP from Telangana, who is close to Rahul Gandhi, said.
The MP also feels that two recent developments—the Gurdaspur terror attack and the execution of 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon—are ‘being indirectly used to polarise’ sentiments.
Congress’ deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, has a similar story to tell. “First, the leader of the House (Arun Jaitley) suppresses the unanimous statement adopted by Rajya Sabha condemning the terror strike. Instead, he tells the media that disruptions made us look like a divided house on national security. Next, the Home Minister rakes up Hindu terror as a diversionary tactic,’’ he explained.
Anticipating a backlash, the Congress got P. Chidambaram, a former Home Minister, to counter Singh’s ‘Hindu terror’ comment. “Sushil Kumar Shinde never made a statement in the House. He has said this at a convention in Jaipur, but was not in the way as is being used. Rajnath Singh should have confined himself to the Gurdaspur terror attack and not bring out a statement made out of Parliament,” Chidambaram said.
The young guns in Lok Sabha, however, aren’t ready to back off. Sushmita Deb, Gaurav Gogoi, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Adhir Choudhury—the enthusiastic placard carriers—backed and prompted by Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rahul Gandhi, are not in a mood to relent. “The demand for Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhra Raje and Shivraj Singh’s Chouhan’s resignations stands,” says Deb.
All the MPs come from states like Bihar, Assam, Punjab or West Bengal, which will be going to polls soon. Otherwise too, ‘the aggressive politics suits their agenda back home’ as they believe that the constituency issues, which need to be addressed “are not being factored in” now. For Scindia and Rahul, the agitation has not been counter-productive in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Going by the party feedback, their activities in the House and outside that ‘are being appreciated’. Santaram Naik, a Congress Rajya Sabha member from Goa blasts out. “A party which agitates in Parliament; disrupts House, comes to power.” he said, citing the examples of BJP, TRS and Trinamool Congress.