Cong stalls House over Babri demolition

Cong stalls House over Babri demolition
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 4: The chargesheets against union ministers L K Advani, M M Joshi and Uma Bharti in the Babri Masjid demolition case is turning into a major battle between the Opposition and the Vajpayee government if today's Congress show in the Lok Sabha is any indication.

With two days to go for the ninth anniversary of the Babri demolition, the Congress stalled proceedings in the lower House demanding the ministers' resignations after question hour with the party indicating that it would continue to disrupt Parliament proceedings until the government gives a satisfactory reply.

There was not much of floor co-ordination among the Opposition parties -- it was a Congress show all the way -- but the party is confident that the Left parties and the Rashtriya Janata Dal cannot afford to be indifferent to an issue which could push the Government to a corner.

In fact, the Congress caught not only the treasury benches but also other opposition parties by surprise when it decided to take the Government head-on on the Babri Masjid issue. That it would raise the issue was kept a closely-guarded secret, keeping in mind the propensity of the Samajwadi Party to hijack similar issue.

The matter was raised by S Jaipal Reddy who had given notice for a debate under Rule 184 which is under the consideration of Speaker G M C Balayogi. ``The senior ministers should follow the example of their junior colleague Harin Pathak (who quit following his chargesheeting in a murder case),'' he said.

The CBI, he said, had named the three ministers in the chargesheet after a detailed investigation. ``This House needs to be seized of the matter immediately as it is grossly improper for them to continue in office,'' he said.

Even as the treasury benches and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan rose in protest, Speaker Balayogi tried to make peace by saying that he would take a decision on Reddy's notice. But this did not satisfy the Congress members who said the matter brooked no further delay and that it should be discussed ``here and now''.

When Congress MPs trooped into the well of the House, Balayogi adjourned the House the first time for 90 minutes and later for the rest of the day.The BJP on the other hand did not seem to be in any mood to give in. It was a ``peoples movement'' that Advani and the two other ministers were involved in, party spokesman V K Malhotra said.

Asked why then had Minister of State for Defence Harin Pathak, who too was involved in a ``peoples movement'' in Gujarat, had been asked to resign, he said ``many in the party felt that he should not have resigned''.

He criticised the Congress for stalling Lok Sabha proceedings. ``It was disgraceful and not befitting the main opposition party. It would have been more in the fitness of things had the Congress demanded improvement in railway services and steps to make rail travel safer,'' he said.