29 July 2003

MAYAWATI DIGGING OWN GRAVE BY FIRING AT JAGMOHAN

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: True to the threat of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, her Bahujan Samaj Party MPs on Tuesday paralysed the Lok Sabha with slogans for dismissal of Union Tourism Minister Jagmohan for his "misleading" statement on the controversial Taj Heritage Corridor Project even as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rejected the demand to drop him from the Government.

Vajpayee's clear-cut stand at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting before the House began that he has confidence in Jagmohan and "there is no question of his resignation" was enough signal for the ruling BJP MPs to shout back at the BSP members storming the well with slogans of "Jagmohan Ko Barkhast Karo."

While Mayawati has fired the gun at Jagmohan to please her Muslim vote bank which may drift to the Samajwadi camp of Mulayam Singh Yadav if she is depicted as anti-Taj Mahal, the tiff between the BJP and her BSP members may destabilise her own coalition government that cannot survive without the BJP's support.

She has only provided an ammunition to the BJP leaders of Uttar Pradesh who once again made a beeline to the central party leaders to put pressure to pull out of his government.

Accusing Jagmohan of "collusion" with her rivals to destabilise her, Mayawati assured the Prime Minister in her telephonic call Monday night tocontinue the support of her BSP to his government at the Centre and stressed that the Jagmohan issue would not affect the BSP-BJP coalition Government in Uttar Pradesh claiming that it would run its full term.

BJP LEADERS ANGRY: The shouts of the angry BJP MPs at the BSP colleagues creating pandemonium that forced the Speaker to repeatedly adjourn the House, however, put a question mark on her wish to complete the full term. The BJP leaders, who are not happy sitting under the shadow of Mayawati by letting her rule the state, indicate that the party would better love to have a mid-term poll instead of tolerating such tantrums and diktats she fires without notice.

They point out that the Prime Minister had made a personal request to Mayawati to persuade her BSP members not to raise the issue in Parliament, but she did not relent putting the government in an awkward situation that it is attacked by the very party that supports it.

There should be no surprise if the Prime Minister uneasy with Mayawati's conduct decides that Uttar Pradesh better go for the assembly polls in November when the same are taking place in five other states, four of which fall in the Hindi heartland, namely Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Kalraj Mishra, who met the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and Party President M Venkaiah Naidu alongwith other MPs from the state, indicated that the BJP may even pull the rug from under Mayawati's feet. The leadership is seriously viewing her conduct in making public a letter she wrote to the PM about Jagmohan and then making her party MPs disrupt the Lok Sabha proceedings, he said, hoping a "positive decision" by the leadership any moment.

Speaker Manohar Joshi, who braved pandemonium by members right under his podium to carry on business despite being howsoever inaudible, "condemned" the BSP members' behaviour. Pointing out that "you are supporting the government and so you can take your grievances to the Prime Minister," the Speaker asked: "Why are you holding the whole House to ransom?"

Jagmohan, who was answering questions in the Rajya Sabha at the time of the storm in the Lok Sabha, asserted, in reply to a question, that neither his ministry not the Environment Ministry had given a clearance or approval of the Taj Heritage Corridor Project. The ball is now in the Supreme Court with regard to the project, he pointed out.

MULAYAM BOYCOTTS ANTI-FERNANDES WALKOUT: The Opposition led by the Congress walking out, barring the Samajwadi Party members who stayed back with their leader Mulayam, and the Shiv Sena members raising the decible of the noise in a bid to take up the case of the Mumbai bomb blast on Monday to demand the dismissal of the Congress government made the Speaker direct Defence Minister George Fernandes to better lay his statement on the table relating to "incidents of attack by terrorists on the army camp at Akhnoor (J&K)" last week.

Fernandes was to make the statement last week but the Speaker had put it off, hoping that his boycott by the Opposition may end. The Congress was more than willing as it wanted to put Fernandes on the mat on the defence matters but other Opposition parties, particularly the Communists, forced it to continue the boycott in view of the Tehalka expose.

Despite the walkout, Fernandes would have made the statement and would have even replied to queries but for the fact that Shiv Sena, a party in the coalition government and BSP supporting it from outside had chosen to create pandemonium. Once Fernandes had laid the statement, the Speaker quickly adjourned the House.

NOISY SCENES THROUGHOUT: The pandemonium had begun right from the start when the Speaker told the BSP members that he has rejected the notice foran adjournment on Jagmohan amd what followed was the BSP members jumping into the well and raising slogans that totally submerged the question hour that went on for 20 minutes before the Speaker ordered the first adjournment of 30 minutes.

The pandemonum, however, continued when the House re-assembled as the BSP members were back in the well with same slogans and the Speaker continued the question hour despite hardly any audibility and went through the tabling of the statements before he adjourned the House up to 2 PM.

BSP leader Rashid Alvi, who could be seen standing all the time while his party colleagues raised slogans from the well, wanted the House to discuss the adjournment motion to debunk Jagmohan giving an impression as if he had stopped construction of the project that would have jeopardised future of the Taj Mahal while "the fact was that the UP Chief Minister had taken steps to stop the work and order an inquiry."

In between, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani invited Alvi for a discussion and later BJP chief whip V K Malhotra went to his seat to persuade him to allow the normal proceedings but without success.

As the uproarious scenes continued, the Speaker said he would like to take up the Question Hour and wante the first question that was listed against the name of Congress Chief Whip P R Dasmunsi be asked. Dasmunsi expressed inability to do so saying "there is no order in the House. I can't even hear what is happening". The Speaker then moved on to the second question.

Accusing Jagmohan of "misleading" the House, Alvi said work on the controversial project had been going on for eight long months, the Tourism Minister neither stalled it nor take any action against any official despite the fact that he had a Tourism Office right inside the Taj complex.

He quoted letters written by Mayawati to the Prime Minister and Jagmohan's letter to the Chief Minister to show how the Tourism Minister had not given the "correct picture" to the House and the nation.

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