Opp manages a consolation prize in Rajya Sabha

Opp manages a consolation prize in Rajya Sabha
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, MARCH 12: The Opposition today scored a point over the Government on the disinvestment of Balco by forcing an amendment criticising the deal to the motion of thanks on the President's address to Parliament.

The amendment, which sought to disapprove the manner in which Balco was disinvested -- was carried through convincingly by the Opposition. The final tally at the end of the voting stood at 103 in favour and 64 againt the amendment.

The amendment moved by senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said the ``Address does not contain the Government's decision to sell out Balco a cent percent-owned Central PSU having a track record of continuous profit earning and having a huge cash reserve to a private sector company whose track record of managing and running an Aluminium manufacturing company is not known and is of doubtful nature.''

The joint strategy of the Congress and the Left, with the support of other opposition parties, to embarrass and censure the Government in the upper house was made easy by the fact that BJP and its allies are in a minority in the upper house. Prime Minister Vajpayee, who had come to the upper house to reply to the debate on the motion of thanks, was in attendance at the time of the division of votes, on which the opposition insisted.

This is the third time in the history of Indian Parliamentary that the Government had to suffer an embarrassment over the passage of the President's address in the Rajya Sabha. The previous two occasions were in 1980 when the Congress under Indira Gandhi was in power and in 1989 during the tenure of the Janata Dal Government. On both occasions, the Government of the day was in a minority in the upper house.