Speaker's meeting will be crucial

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, DEC. 10. The Congress is insisting on a discussion in Parliament under a substantive motion on their demand for the resignations of three Cabinet Ministers charged with conspiring to demolish the Babri Masjid on December 2, 1992. But, should the Opposition parties decide to change their tactics at a meeting tomorrow, before all party leaders meet in the Speaker's chamber, they may find that the admissibility Rule 186, Clause VIII, could stump them.

The Rule clearly states that a discussion ``shall not relate to any matter which is under adjudication by a court of law having jurisdiction in any part of India,'' and the Babri demolition case is certainly in court. The fear in the Opposition camp is that the Speaker will not be able to rule in their favour if the Congress insists on discussing the resignations.

A way out for the Opposition would be to change the tactics and discuss the Prime Minister's controversial statements on Ayodhya; but a consensus on that would have to await the Opposition's strategy meeting.

The Speaker has called a meeting of all party leaders at 10 a.m. to arrive at a decision which would allow Parliament to function normally after a week of adjournments.

Whatever form the discussion takes, the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, has been forced by his allies at the NDA meeting today to agree to take a strongly secular stand on the Ayodhya issue in Parliament. Even so, it is certain that Opposition parties, and perhaps even the allies, will query him hard on his controversial statements made earlier this week.

Mr. Pramod Mahajan, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, made it clear that the Government will be willing to accept whatever decision the presiding officers in the two Houses take. The Government stand is that it will be up to the Opposition to convince the presiding officers to accept their motions, and clearly the Government is depending on the Opposition not being able to find the appropriate rules to discuss the demand for the Ministers' resignations.

The Congress spokesperson, Mr. Anil Shastri, reiterated that his party will not budge from its demand for a discussion on the resignations of the three Ministers.

The ruling parties are also likely to exploit the antipathy between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party which is loathe to allow the Congress the lead role on the Ayodhya issue as it blames the Narasimha Rao and the Rajiv Gandhi Governments as much as the BJP for what happened on December 6, 1992.

The Left has been trying to smoothen things out so that the Opposition does not present a divided house tomorrow. It also seems that the Congress may be reluctant to discuss the larger Ayodhya issue as the heat would also be on it - after all, the unlocking of the disputed structure for `pooja' and the `shilanyas' (laying of foundation stone) in Ayodhya took place under Congress regimes. This is a major reason for disagreements within the Opposition.

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