Critics of Statute review spreading lies -- Fernandes

Critics of Statute review spreading lies -- Fernandes
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, April 12: Defence Minister George Fernandes today lashed out at the critics of Constitution review asking them not to `spread lies' on the issue.

"The Review Commission cannot amend the Constitution. Rather than stomping across the country and spewing a whole lot of lies, all that the critics have to do is to look at Article 368 of the Constitution."

"They will realise that an amendment to the Constitution can be made only by Parliament (with two-thirds majority in both Houses). They will also realise that there are certain articles of the Constitution which cannot be amended without the concurrence of the legislatures of one-half of the states," he said delivering the Des Raj Choudhury Memorial Lecture here.

Justifying the idea of a fixed five-year term for all elected bodies in view of the colossal expenditure involved in frequent elections, he said this was not an original idea but had been enshrined in the constitutions of many Parliaments and legislatures.

While fixing the term of the Lok Sabha, it provides for the removal of the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers and their replacement by another executive, he added.

Speaking on coalition politics, he said it may be a "misplaced belief" that coalitions were a passing phase and saw it as a "Himalayan task" for any party to acquire a national presence which may enable it to rule by itself.

Tracing the history of coalition politics in the country, Fernandes described the Deve Gowda and I K Gujral Governments as "for all practical purposes, proxy governments of the Congress."

Fernandes said regional parties would not disappear but acquire greater strength in the coming years exerting to deliver their promises.

There is no hidden agenda of any political party under implementation, regardless of how much the opponents of the Vajpayee Government may shout about it, Fernandes said.

Seeing unemployment as the "mother of all social, economic and law and order problems" the country faced today, he said the "much-awakened" electorate wanted governments to speak with their actions that would alleviate poverty, generate employment, provide housing, education and health care.

The Minister said that only when power was transferred to the people would there be any genuine release of people's energy that is needed to increase production to provide a better life to them.

"The decentralised polity, particularly devolution of power to the lowest levels of administration, like the village and intermediate panchayat, will help to a considerable extent to also fight corruption in administration, and thereby prevent leakage of resources earmarked for development," Fernandes said.

Suggesting that the Constitution Review Commission take up the issue of devolution of power to the people, he said the lowest levels of panchayats should also be given the responsibility for maintenance of law and order rather than the "present insensitive and remote-controlled police establishment whose exponential growth in the top echelons is eating out of the tax payer's money like an insatiable parasite."