THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Subhas Ray

THE five-week monsoon session of parliament began on July 25 and adjourned for the day after passing obituary references for the sitting and former members of parliament, including Sunil Dutt and P K Vasudevan Nair of Lok Sabha and Biplab Dasgupta of Rajya Sabha. All the three were sitting members.

GURGAON BARBARITY 

The police brutality on the workers of Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd, Gurgaon (Haryana), came up in a big way on July 26. In Lok Sabha, CPI(M) members angrily walked out, followed by others. The incident has shaken the conscience of many who were supporting the ruling class till the other day, as it exposed the rulers’ attitude towards the whole working class. Members of Left parties forced the Haryana government to institute a judicial inquiry into this case.

In Rajya Sabha, members forced suspension of question hour in favour of a discussion on the incident, but staged a walkout after an unsatisfactory reply from the home minister. A Vijayaraghavan, CPI(M), said the constitution gave the people the right to have associations. But the Honda company suspended hundreds of workers only for organising an association. The police cordoned the workers and beat them mercilessly when the peacefully agitating workers were on their way to give a memorandum to deputy commissioner. Would the government permit the MNCs to come and beat the poor workers of this country, Vijayaraghavan angrily asked. He demanded immediate suspension of guilty police personnel and judicial inquiry into the incident. 

CPI(M) group leader Nilotpal Basu narrated his spot visit, described the police atrocities and said there was a second round of lathicharge and teargas shelling within hospital premises, that too in front of MPs. The chain of events started in December 2004 when one of the Honda managers kicked a worker, leading to a protest demonstration and an altercation with the police. The prevailing situation signified total collapse of the local administration’s credibility, with Gurgaon SP playing a destructive role. Basu then demanded immediate dismissal of SP and deputy commissioner, information about the missing persons as well as the number of persons detained in police custody, kept in jails and admitted in hospitals, immediate release of persons in police custody and jail, and adequate compensation for the injured. He, however, said the Gurgaon incident cannot be seen in isolation from the employment scenario in the country where labour law violations are rampant.

NATURAL CALAMITIES

Both the houses had discussions on natural calamities in the country. The CPI(M)’s Basudeb Acharia and N N Krishnadas in Lok Sabha and Matilal Sarkar in Rajya Sabha participated. Initiating the discussion, Acharia drew attention to the unprecedented flood in Maharashtra where hundreds of people were washed away,  railway lines are under water, the marooned people are not able to communicate with others, and thousands of villages are without power. But the house has not been informed as to what the centre has done to provide relief to the people. Earlier, there was a flood in Gujarat but there was no relief or rescue operation. Recently, a flash flood completely stopped the operation of Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam. The government was aware that the area is flash flood prone but no preventive measures were taken. This year, a number of states like Madhya Pradesh, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have floods. But the thing is that the situation is going from bad to worse, and the flood prone areas are increasing. A number of rivers in North India from Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, and the northern states get affected whenever these rivers are in flood. This requires some concrete joint measures with the Nepal and Bhutan governments to protect these areas. Yet, the relevant recommendations of working group and task forces remain unimplemented. 

Acharia also raised the issue of erosion in Ganga basin, particularly in West Bengal. Giving facts and figures, he pointed out how the centre has been ignoring the recommendations made by various committees and task forces. A centrally sponsored scheme, namely the Critical Anti-Erosion Works in Ganga Basin, was approved in January 2001, with a central share of Rs 110 crore, against the recommended Rs 926 crore. Similarly, the fund provided for by the ninth five-year plan for taking up anti-erosion works in four Gangetic states was not released. Ganga is changing its course, Acharia warned, demanding that this erosion must be declared a national problem and tackled by the centre.  

Krishnadas expressed grave concern over the flood havoc in several part of the country and demanded remedial measures of a permanent kind. In Kerala, seven landslides have occurred. A very serious landslide recently occurred in Idukki district. There is sea erosion in Kerala. Thousands of hectares of paddy fields have been damaged by floodwaters. Crops like ginger, pepper, banana and some vegetables have been damaged. The government should provide maximum assistance for urgent measures so that the situation may be brought to normal. 

In Rajya Sabha, Matilal Sarkar said Tripura was badly affected by floods last year. The state government had given a proposal to the centre for dams in Tripura, but nothing was done. What is ridiculous is that the state government got only Rs 5 lakh for flood relief against the demand of Rs 75 crore! Sarkar said the North East gets flooded by the rivers that start from China and flow into Bangladesh whose dams block water. So the central government has to take initiative so that two countries may sit together and see that water in one area does not create trouble for the other. He asked the centre to come forward with relief fund and also ensure that maximum benefit reaches the poor. 

OTHER ISSUES

On the day, BJP leader L K Advani moved an adjournment motion about migrants from Bangladesh, which CPI(M) group leader Basudeb Acharia opposed. Acharia said we cannot forget the massacre of thousands at Nelli when the All Assam Students Union was for throwing away the minorities. Now that the Supreme Court has struck down the IMDT Act, the leader of opposition wants that the migrants be deported under the Foreigners Act. The real need is to have a provision of judicial scrutiny so as to protect the rights of genuine citizens. Nobody is denying that illegal migration is taking place across the porous border. But if the IMDT Act was discriminatory, as the Supreme Court said it was meant for a particular state, the government of India could have extended it all over the country by an executive order. The leader of opposition had asked why the minorities, religious and linguistic, should be protected and not deported from Assam in order to protect India from “external aggression.” But, Acharia asked, could immigration be considered external aggression? He demanded that genuine citizens who had migrated up to the cut-off date should be given protection, as per the 1971 agreement between Indira Gandhi and Mujibur Rahman. Those who migrated after 1971 must be detected and deported to Bangladesh.  

In Lok Sabha, Hannan Mollah, CPI(M), raised the issue of farmers agitation on July 26, soon after having visited Rajasthan. He said the farmers in Rajasthan are in serious trouble for years because of continuous drought and non-availability of water from the Indira Gandhi Nahar Project. Thousands of acres of cotton crop got destroyed last year. Some water was released after a big agitation, and an agreement reached between farmers and the government that water would be supplied to Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the project in the 58:42 ratio. But again the farmers are not getting any water. Thousands of farmers are on the streets demanding water supply. A serious situation is prevailing there and may go out of hand if the government fails to take immediate steps, he warned. He also urged the government to see if Punjab releases some amount of water. 

In Lok Sabha, Rupchand Pal of CPI(M) demanded a full-fledged discussion on the recent hike in petro-product prices. The price-rise, that for diesel in particular, is causing havoc to the common man’s life. This has a cascading effect on essential and other commodities. Agriculturists are also suffering. Pal wanted to know how the government would respond to the alternative proposal to set up an oil stabilisation fund in the backdrop of continuing rise in international crude price. He said the government has already collected a huge amount of duty that can be used for this fund to protect the common man.

In Lok Sabha, P Mohan of the CPI(M) raised the issue of closure of 660 dyeing units and 3000 hosiery units in Tiruppur, the knitting town in Tamil Nadu. He said this has rendered about 3 lakh workers jobless. These units earn foreign exchange of nearly Rs 6000 crore and pay crores of rupees as tax to both the central and state governments. Hence both the governments have to take steps to protect these units. Saying that these units were shut down due to pollution problem, Mohan asked the two governments to enhance the current subsidy for setting up effluent treatment plants. In fact, he said, it is incumbent upon both the centre and state to fully fund such plants in view of the large amount of tax revenue they earn.  

K S Manoj, CPI(M), drew the government’s attention to more than 100 Indian fishermen languishing in Pakistan jails for the last seven months. He said the Pakistan Navy caught them for allegedly crossing the territorial waters of Pakistan. Natives of other countries, arrested along with Indians, were released but the Indian fishermen are still in jails. Apart from them, there are many Keralites in Pakistan; they went there for trading but are devoid of any emigration records. As they wish to come back to India, Manoj asked the government to take immediate steps to those Indian fishermen and Keralites released and repatriated.