Government may have to warm up to NDA to wriggle out of Lokjam

Government may have to warm up to NDA to wriggle out of Lokjam

ET Bureau Dec 24, 2011, 02.36am IST


NEW DELHI: A day after the Lokpal bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, the government seems to be caught in a strange situation that leaves it with a sole option for steering clear of the crisis: speak to the NDA.

"We are now experiencing a peculiar predicament. The bill brought by us has not pleased anyone," said a senior minister who asked not to be named. He said the passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha will now depend on the concessions that the government is willing to offer to the Opposition, particularly the BJP.



"We may be able to pass it in the Lok Sabha, but it can get the assent of the Rajya Sabha only if we manage to get BJP on board," said the minister.

But it is easier said than done. For, BJP has long wish list. That includes taking the CBI out of government control to scrapping of the minority quota to bringing the bill under Article 252 of the Constitution. Accepting just one of these demands — doing away with the minority quota — will invite the wrath of secular parties and an instant defeat of the bill in the Lok Sabha; all non-NDA parties in Parliament have backed the religious quota.

The numbers are heavily loaded against the government in the Upper House as SP, BSP, BJD, AIADMK, TDP and RJD have spoken out against the legislation. The legal infirmities of the Lokpal Bill — the minority quota that breaches constitutional limits and charges of infringement on the federal structure by chief ministers and the entire Opposition — have only compounded problems for the government.

Senior lawyer Rajeev Dhawan said the imposition of reservation in the Lokpal was wholly indefensible. "Quite apart from whether this will be struck down by the Supreme Court, Parliament has to lay down constitutional principles and not play with the Constitution and indulge in constitutional brinkmanship with the courts," said Rajeev Dhawan.

The government has only itself to blame for the stand off with chief ministers — it had disregarded the Opposition's suggestion to constitute Lokpal under Article 252 of the Constitution. This route would not have taken away

right of the state legislature as such a law could have only put forward a framework of legislations for the states to adopt.

"The central law will override state laws. States such as Bihar, Karnataka have its own laws," said Sushma Swaraj. She blamed shoddy home work by the government for the crisis. "They could have averted the crisis had they brought it under 252. It only required resolutions from two state assemblies. And that was not done by the Centre," said Swaraj.

Nitish Kumar, J Jayalalithaa and Naveen Patnaik have said the law is an assault on the federal structure as the Centre has sought to invoke Article 253 for constituting Lokpal. "It will give Parliament the power to make laws on state subjects. This is against spirit of federalism," AIADMK has said in a statement. BJP leaders here said the party will not allow any encroachment in the domain of states.

"The Lokpal will have to be formed under Article 252," said Swaraj. An acceptance of this demand would require the Centre to set a new timeline for the bill's passage as it cannot be done without resolutions from two state assemblies.