With the possibility of Parliament’s Monsoon Session getting washed out even before it ends on September 7, the government is making a desperate attempt to hold proceedings by trying to divide the Opposition and isolate the BJP.
The government plans to clear a bill giving reservation in promotions for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe employees both at the Centre and the states. A proposal in the form of a constitutional amendment is high on the agenda of the Union Cabinet meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday morning.
If the bill is brought before Parliament, it may be hard for non-BJP Opposition parties to stall proceedings and block the legislation. Any attempt to block the bill will provide a handle to the treasury benches to blame the BJP-led Opposition for “working against the interests of SCs/STs”, a senior Congress leader said. Congress spin doctors feel parties like the Left, Samajwadis, JD(U), BJD and AIADMK will find it hard to disrupt Parliament if the bill was introduced.
Finance minister P. Chidambaram, taking an aggressive stance, on Monday categorically rejected the BJP’s demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation over the “Coalgate” row, calling it “preposterous”, and also clearly ruled out cancellation of coal block allocations or an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge.
“The demand for cancellation of all 142 coal blocks allocated after 2004 is not founded on sound logic. Cancellation cannot be done through diktat or arbitrary orders,” he said.
Rejecting Opposition claims, Mr Chidambaram said: “2012 is not 1989, and the issue cannot be compared to Bofors”. The CBI, he said, was already investigating the matter, and “if there are any irregularities, the CBI will look into the criminal aspect of it”.
Law minister Salman Khurshid asked the BJP to explain how much loss it was “causing the country by what they are doing in Parliament”.