CPI(M) opposes move to amend RS laws

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 30. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today opposed the Union Cabinet's decision to amend the laws relating to elections to the Rajya Sabha stating that ``tinkering with the basic electoral principle should not be done''.

At the end of the party's two-day central committee meeting on Monday, the CPI(M) general secretary, Mr. Harkishan Singh Surjeet, charged the BJP-led Government with being ``disturbingly prompt in suggesting modifications to the secret ballot system such as proxy vote and open ballot system''. The CPI(M) said the amendment on removing representation based on the States to the Rajya Sabha would violate the nature of the Upper House defined as a Council of States in the Constitution. Members of the Rajya Sabha should belong to the States concerned unlike the Lok Sabha, it said.

The second proposal to amend the law to switch to an open ballot was an ``ill-thought step''. Secrecy of vote was there in all levels of elections, from panchayat to Parliament. ``Why should one category alone be elected through open vote? If MLAs are being purchased or swayed to vote, then it reflects on the quality of persons selected by the parties concerned'', it said.

The party criticised the Vajpayee Government for resorting to an ordinance to ``smuggle in a draconian law '' to replace TADA. It said if the Government thought it could push through such a law taking advantage of the present international climate against terrorism, it was mistaken.

``The scope of misuse of such a draconian law has increased with the BJP-led Government's double standards in taking action against violence perpetrated by different types of religious fundamentalists'', the CPI(M) charged. Urging all democratic parties to see to that the ordinance did not get legislated into law, the party said, POTO would be a violation of democratic rights and apprehended its misuse against trade union activities and popular struggles.

To a question on a similar law being suggested by the CPI(M)-led West Bengal Government, the party's politburo member, Mr. Prakash Karat, said the Chief Minister had informed the central committee that his Government would not promulgate an ordinance.

The West Bengal Government would draft a Bill to check militant activities in the State after a thorough study of POTO and by ensuring that draconian measures did not reflect in it. The proposed Bill would be placed before the State Assembly during its next session. The central committee also discussed the outline of the draft political resolution to be placed before the 17th congress of the party in March, next year. The draft would be finalised by the central committee at its January meeting.

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