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Posted on 20 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
I am speaking on the Bill with a mixed feeling. I am indeed happy and delighted that we have been able to create the separate state of Telangana. We are fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Telangana and the fact that my party has contributed to this process is a matter of satisfaction for us.
I am deeply concerned at the fact that the concerns of the Seemandhra region are not being adequately addressed.
I am deeply disappointed at the manner in which the UPA government has handled this entire issue.
TELANGANA
The demand for creation of Telangana has been a long standing one. It has a chequered history. Hyderabad and Nizam areas became a part of India in a manner which was very challenging to the whole country. My party has a longstanding demand for creation of a separate state of Telangana. My party fully supports the creation of the state of Telangana. It sees no contradiction between this commitment and doing adequate justice to Seemandhra. I will go back from this House with a sense of satisfaction that we have redeemed our promise to the people of Telangana.
How UPA blundered in the whole process
The NDA government created the three states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. We worked towards a consensus. We succeeded in getting unanimous resolutions passed by three state assemblies. The three states were created by a process of consensus. There were jubilations around when the three states were created.
The UPA promised the creation of Telangana in 2004. It has waited for the penultimate day of the last session to create the state. The then Home Minister made a short-lived announcement on December 9, 2009. The announcement was retracted by appointing the Justice Sri Krishna Committee. The matter was deliberately delayed. Today the problem with regard to the creation of the state has been the disturbances caused by the ruling party members including the Union Ministers. The Lok Sabha had to suspend large number of members from Seemandhra. This resulted in a situation where we are dividing a partly unwilling state behind the back of elected representatives from one region of the state. Worse still, when the Bill was taken up in the Lok Sabha, the concerns of Seemandhra were not addressed. The telecast was blacked out. This further reduced the credibility of the decision making process. A good cause such as creation of Telangana has got a bad name because of the manner in which the UPA has handled it.
Is a Constitution amendment necessary?
Article 163 of the Constitution clearly states that the Governor of the State is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of the Ministers. ‘Law and Order’ and ‘Policing’ are state subjects under Entries 1 and 2 of List II of the Seventh Schedule. Clause 8 of the Bill proposes that the law and order of Hyderabad city, which will be common capital of two states, shall vest in the Governor. The Governor, who is an appointee of the Central Government will be aided by two advisors (appointed by the Central Government) who shall advise him in the law & order functions of the state. This is an alternative method of governance. The BJP is willing to accept this method till such time that Hyderabad remains the common capital of two states. However, can this alternative method of governance, which violates Article 163 of the Constitution as also the Seventh Schedule thereto can be done by an ordinary legislation and not by a constitution amendment? The BJP is willing to support the Constitution amendment. The BJP wants that the Bill to create Telangana with Hyderabad initially as the common capital should be legally and constitutionally a sustainable decision and not a suspect decision.
Justice to Seemandhra
Article 3 of the Constitution gives to the central legislature the absolute discretion to divide a state. The Centre can even divide an unwilling state. All previous precedents have been with the consent of the state. Andhra Pradesh is a state, which is being divided without a supporting resolution of the state legislature. It is, therefore, necessary that the Central Government is more than fair to the Seemandhra region. Telangana, with Hyderabad starts with an advantage. Seemandhra has to be partly compensated. The Central Government must categorically assure that since most existing central institutions are in Hyderabad, new institutions would be additionally created in Seemandhra region. The irrigation projects have to be statutorily protected so that water flow to the downstream state is protected. The assurances given by the Central Government to senior BJP leader Shri Venkaiah Naidu must be made binding. It must be ensured that as long as Hyderabad is the common capital, neutrality in the administration of law and justice of Hyderabad would be maintained. Clause 46 of the proposed Bill promises a special package and tax incentives to Seemandhra region which will henceforth be called the successor state of Andhra Pradesh. It must be ensured through a statutory protection that the special packages and incentives compensate the Seemandhra region for the loss of revenue being caused by the bifurcation of the original state of Andhra Pradesh.
I have in this regard proposed two specific amendments, which I shall press at the appropriate time.
Posted on 19 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
The sudden adjournment of the Rajya Sabha at 5 PM came to me as a surprise. I was given to understand that the House may sit late today and discuss ‘The Andra Pradesh Bifurcation Bill 2014’.
The BJP stands committed to the twin principle of creation of Telegana and Justice for Seemandra. Our effort in this regard shall continue tomorrow.
The entire opposition has insisted that the debate can take place only and only when the proceedings of the House are live telecast. People have a right to know what their representatives are speaking.
Posted on 18 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
Narendra Modi is indeed a problem for the Congress Party. It is precisely for this reason that the Congress/UPA has used every method, fair or foul to counter him. They are still at sea how to deal with him.
The media campaign engineered against him did not cut much ice. The SIT constituted by the Supreme Court gave a favourable report. The Judge, dealing with the case, accepted the SIT report. Despite bending backwards the CBI could not find a shred of evidence against him. The Congress Party’s hopes that Narendra Modi would be isolated politically have been dashed. Besides political allies, his popularity amongst the people has reached an unprecedented level.
The UPA government has now invented a new curious method, which it hopes can tackle him. Absurd that it may sound, they now propose to tax Modi’s rallies. Considering the mammoth crowds who gather to listen to Narendra Modi all over the country, this can be Finance Minister’s faint hope of augmenting his otherwise depleting revenue.
On February 12, the Directorate General of Central Excise and Intelligence has issued a letter to the BJP and its Chandigarh office. The notice mentions “as the entry tickets to the event were not for any admission to any entertainment event or access to amusement facilities (which are in the negative list) the same is taxable in the hands of the person collecting the amount of tickets. It appears that the BJP/Shri Narendra Modi has (sic.) neither got registered under the Service Tax nor paid tax on collection from tickets”. The notice, therefore, desires that the details of the alleged entry tickets to Modi’s rallies should be furnished immediately for calculation of service tax payable by Shri Narendra Modi or the BJP. The Chandigarh unit of the BJP has not organized any rally of Narendra Modi as yet.
Obviously, there are no tickets for Narendra Modi’s rallies. Either at the rallies or elsewhere in the country, the BJP has launched a massive fund collection campaign. Our effort is to reach 10 crores households for fund collection. The Directorate General of Central Excise and Intelligence appears to be believing that the BJP/Narendra Modi renders service to those who come to attend Narendra Modi’s rallies. They believe that Mr. Modi’s rally is neither ‘entertainment event nor access to amusement facilities’ hence they are liable to levy of service tax. A legitimate question arises if such notice for collecting funds is only being issued to the BJP or to other political parties, particularly the Congress Party. There is no doubt that the UPA government has taken leave of all its senses. I hope the people realize the extent of desperation to the extent the Congress has stooped to. If this is how the principal opposition party or its Prime Ministerial candidate can be harassed, the extent of plight of common taxpayers in the country can be easily understood.
Posted on 17 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
The Finance Minister presented Vote on Account estimates before the Parliament today. It was an electoral imperative for him to attempt to repackage the 10 years of the UPA. He is faced with a harsh reality. He inherited an 8.5 percent GDP growth rate. He exits on a 4.5 percent GDP growth. The last three years of the UPA witnessed a sharp fall in the growth rate from a near 9 percent to less than 5 percent. He, therefore, had to lean back on larger slogans such as his ‘Idea of India’. Obviously, in an ideologically pluralistic society, there can be more than one ‘Idea of India’. None can usurp the title of a book and claim it only belongs to him.
The Finance Minister had set a laxman-rekha for himself last year. The fiscal deficit had to be brought down to 4.8 percent. He now claims to have brought it down to 4.6 percent. He achieves this spectacular feat not by bringing in revenue buoyancy or by reviving the investment cycle but by cutting down expenditure, particularly the capital expenditure. The grants for creation of Capital Assets and Capital Expenditure has been cut down by as high as Rs. 91,000 crores. This alone would have impacted the GDP to the extent of 0.8 percent. Similarly, allocations to various Ministries in the current year shows wide difference between the Budget estimates 2013-14 and the Revised Estimates of 2013-14. The grant to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation are cut down by 21. 3 percent. The grant to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is cut down by 20.6 percent. The grant to the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is cut down by 41.97 percent, MHA by 31.3 percent, Ministry of HRD by Six percent, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways by 18.72 percent and Ministry of Rural Development by 22.92 percent. . These are all departments and ministries which relate to social sector and infrastructure. Only the Ministry of Finance grants have been increased by 18.3 percent.
Then the grants to the States have been cut down from the Budget Estimates of Rs. 1,36,254 Crores to Rs. 1,19,039 Crores- a reduction of 12.6 percent.
This slowdown in the manufacturing sector is a huge concerns. This directly reflects on job creation. The excise duties in the current year, which were estimated to be Rs.1,97,554 Crores has now been revised to Rs.1,79,538 – a reduction of 9.1 percent.
The FM has taken credit for the stellar performance of the Agriculture sector but the real credit goes to the States like Gujarat , Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh which have consistently given double digit growth rates in Agriculture.
The subsidy outgo on Food, Fertilizer and Fuel has been projected at Rs. 2,46,397 Crores for 2014-15. Out of this, fuel subsidy is at 65,000 crores, Fertilizer at 36,970 crores and Food subsidy is at 1,15,000 crores. The combined expenditures on all Food schemes has been reduced from 1,24,844 Crores in 2013-14 to 1,15,000 crores in 2014-15 representing a fall. This is much below the expectations under the food security scheme which requires a much larger outlay. The subsidies in fuel has been underestimated year after year. The FM has once again rolled over fuel subsidies worth Rs.35,000 Crores to the next fiscal. This move is a mere statistical illusion to keep the fiscal deficit look optically correct while its inflationary impact on the economy remains real.
The FM has again harped on the OROP viz. the one rank one pension scheme and transferred Rs.500 Crores to the Defence Pension Account. The UPA Government has been paying lip service to the cause of defence personnel. In the earlier Budget in 2009-10, a committee was set up and its recommendations were promised to be implemented. But the grievances remained as the approach was half-baked. Again the FM has promised that this cause has been completely addressed in this Budget. There should be no attempt to play with the aspirations of our Armed Forces.
Even though the Vote-on-Account is only for a period of four months, there are serious concerns on the growth rate, real Fiscal deficit, inflation, investment and the slow down in manufacturing sector. The stability of the Rupee is a matter of concern particularly because the Rupee itself has reached unacceptable levels.
Will the Finance Minister seriously introspect on the legacy he would leave behind for the next Finance Minister? The Finance Minister will be a relieved man today. His successor will be in trouble.
Posted on 16 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
As we enter the last week of the Parliament session a legitimate question which arises for consideration is –who is responsible for the non-passage of several pending legislations? The Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi yesterday made a statement that the BJP has blocked the Anti-graft legislations in the Parliament.
The truth is that the Congress conceived of some legislations towards the end of UPA’s 10 year rule. By this time the party had lost majority in both Houses of parliament. Most of these legislations and several other laws such as legislation relating to protection to be provided to street vendors or setting up of a central university in Bundelkhand are not subject matters of any controversy. These are laws which can be passed after some discussion. Several organizations of disabled persons have been pressing for early consideration and passage of laws which deal with the issues of concern to them. Just as Rahul Gandhi blamed the BJP yesterday for the non-passage of the Anti graft laws, stake holders in relation to other legislations are being fed with similar arguments.
The facts in this regard need to be clearly stated. The BJP has no reservation against most of these legislations. We are willing to support them. Not a single BJP Member has disturbed the proceedings of either of the two Houses of Parliament. No BJP member has gone into the well of the House. We assemble every morning in Parliament. The Houses are disturbed on account of the issues relating to bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh which is pending consideration. The Speaker and the Chairman of the Houses regularly adjourn the Houses since proceedings cannot be conducted in this environment. A large number of members of the Congress Party disturb the Houses every day. I don’t think Rahul Gandhi has had time to either come to the House or acquaint himself with the disturbance being created by his own Party members. Not having spoken even once on major scams such as the 2G spectrum allocation, the Coal Block allocation, the Commonwealth Games organization etc., he has only belatedly realized that corruption is a major issue in Indian politics. Instead of patting himself on the back for this rather belated realization and taking undue credit for introducing these legislations towards the fag end of the tenure, Rahul Gandhi needs to look inwards and find out the honest answer to the question why these legislations are held up. Because it is the Congress Members who repeatedly disturb the House. They are held up because the Government is not able to restore order in the House. The moment Rahul Gandhi realizes the truth and his party takes corrective actions, the BJP will have no difficulty in supporting most of these legislations.
Posted on 15 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
The nightmare is finally over. The worst ever State Government that Delhi has ever witnessed has resigned. The AAP party Government decided to submit its resignation to the Lt. Governor. The past 49 days witnessed an unconventional Government. It was a Government without an agenda and without an ideology. It was a Government committed to populism and demagogue.
Clever politics and no governance – this appeared to be the motto of the AAP government in Delhi. This was a Government without a mandate. It had only 28 seats. The BJP was a bigger party. The AAP had no qualms before accepting shamelessly the Congress support in order to prove the majority. Most of its MLAs were inexperienced. They lacked maturity. At times, they were outlandish. They had an agitational approach but were foreign to any form of governance.
Did the AAP government decide to expand the drinking water connectivity in Delhi? Did they seriously conceive of a scheme to increase the healthcare facilities in Delhi? Did they ever think of setting up new schools and colleges? Did they ever think over expanding the technical educational institutions in Delhi? What about taking Delhi Metro to the next phase? Did the idea of more flyovers and better PWD roads ever cross their thinking? These are all areas which add to the quality of life of those living in a large metropolis. These are real areas of governance. The 49-day government had no mind space for any of these issues.
It concentrated its approach only to agitational issues. It agitated against the Home Minister, against the Lt. Governor, against the Commissioner of Police and against the African ladies. Its approach was to concoct falsehood and create imaginary enemies and then carry on propaganda on the strength of attacking the imaginary enemies. It had the arrogance to believe that only its leaders were honest and everybody else was compromised. It started losing popularity with everyday in government. The Party had realized that its leaders sitting in Sachivalaya were ‘a bull in a China shop’. They were more suited to the streets. It therefore crafted an exit route for itself. Its Jan Lokpal Bill was kept as a closely guarded secret till the last day. The ‘Lokpal content’ of the Bill is not radically different from the Central legislation but it wanted to create a false propaganda that its Bill is a revolutionary one in comparison to the central law. It decided to defy the conventional procedure for legislative approval in order to invent a pretext for resignation.
The AAP Government has exited. It defied the hopes of many who wanted to see an alternative politics emerge. The alternative politics was populism, demagogue, falsehood but no governance. Thank God, the nightmare is over.
Posted on 14 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
As the term of the UPA moves towards an end, it has little stake left in the system. “After me the deluge” is what the UPA wants to leave behind. The earlier days of its tenure have been marked by decline of institutions, slackness in the pace of growth of the economy, corruption reducing the level of credibility of governmental decision making.
The UPA has now completely collapsed on dispute resolution in relation to creation of a State of Telengana. It has unleashed forces within its own party which it no longer can control. The holding of a parliamentary session without disturbances has now become rare. The disturbance is not by mainstream Opposition but by UPA’s own members. Government, particularly the Prime Minister Office and the Home Ministry are completely paralyzed and taking no initiative in resolving the issues at hand.
Even today it is still not too late to pick up the threads and work towards a larger consensus. Issues such as creation of a capital for Seemandhra, eventual creation of a separate High Court in Seemandhra, compensating the region with regard to the loss of revenue caused by a bifurcation, comfort level with regard to water and power in the regions are amongst other issues which are capable of being resolved. The NDA while creating the three States of Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhatisgarh had amicably resolved these issues. The causes of the parliamentary stalemate and the ugly scenes one saw on Thursday are essentially UPA provoked. Most Members disturbing the proceedings belong to the UPA. No effort has been made to reconcile the differences between representatives of Telengana and Seemandhra. The Government has not provided a forum for conciliation. The Parliament is unable to discuss the aspirations of the two regions. In the process Indian democracy continues to get a bad name. The image of the ugly politician emanating from what is happening in the Parliament continues to dominate the popular perception. Both Telengana and Seemandhra live with a sense of injustice being done to them. The UPA Government has taken leave of all sense of statecraft. Even today it is not too late to provide a forum within or outside the parliament for a process of conciliation which can forthwith lead to the creation of Telengana while addressing the genuine concerns of the people of Seemandhra.
Posted on 13 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
We have repeatedly maintained that the UPA has lost the will to rule. Its ability to take and implement political decisions has come into severe questioning. What has happened today is on account of the UPA’s inability to handle the political situation arising out of the proposal to create the state of Telangana. The Congress Party itself is vertically split. Its Members of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh are predominantly responsible for ensuring that Parliament is unable to function effectively. Its Chief Minister has ensured that administration in the state is completely paralyzed.
Today’s incidents in the Lok Sabha is a serious blow to India’s Parliamentary democracy. Dangerous & Prohibited devices are used to block the Parliamentary proceedings. Members are unsure of what actually has happened. As against this the BJP, including all its Members, from both Telangana and Seemandhra region are taking a cohesive stand in support of the creation of the state of Telangana while simultaneously addressing the legitimate concerns of the people of Seemandhra. Regrettably, the UPA has completely failed in this regard. The present crisis is directly on account of this failure. It is the Congress and Congress alone which must take the responsibility for completely mishandling the situation. Today’s ‘theatre of the absurd’ could have been avoided only if the Congress leadership had done adequate home work and were able to control its own members.
Posted on 13 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
The US ambassador Ms. Nancy Powell has met the Gujarat Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi today. The decision by the US administration to resume contact with the Gujarat Chief Minister appears to be based on their suo moto assessment of the domestic situation in India. I regard it as an internal corrective of the US administration. The earlier decision not to keep contact with an elected representative in India did not appear to be based on any cogent evidence or court verdicts. It was based on excessive propaganda in the media and elsewhere created by certain NGOs.
For us in the BJP, the meeting is a part of the diplomatic routine. The Gujarat Chief Minister is unquestionably the frontrunner in the 2014 general elections. He has convincingly won the State assembly elections three times. The earlier decision of some countries not to deal with him was a failure of India’s foreign policy. It is not for a political party or a State government, to react to another country’s response of dealing or otherwise with elected representatives in India. It was for the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) to react to it. Did the MEA under the UPA fail in this regard? Unquestionably it did.
The reaction of the External Affairs Minister Mr. Salman Khurshid to this meeting is self-evident. The Congress Party is today a demoralized lot. For it the writing on the wall is very clear. Its best case scenario is a defeat in the elections. The logical scenario appears to be indicating a complete rout. Its vote base has disappeared. The arrogance of its leaders still remains. That arrogance is evident even in the reactions in the past few hours. The External Affairs Minister who should have protected the dignity of an elected representative in India appears distressed even as the US Ambassador met the Gujarat Chief Minister.
The Indo-US relationship is an important pillar of India’s foreign policy. The NDA Government led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee had contributed to strengthening of this relationship. All sides must realize that restraint and statesmanship can enable us to overcome transient problems. Aberrations cannot be exaggerated to disturb the balance in the relationship.
Posted on 12 February, 2014, No Comments Comments admin
Federalism is part of the basic structure of India’s constitution. Federal principles are unamendable. The jurisdiction of the Centre and the State is clearly demarcated. There is no scope for any grey area.
Ordinarily, when we perceive threats to federalism, it is suspected that encroachment of federal principles is by the Centre. The Centre, through its agencies, cannot usually investigate what happens in the States. It is only in extreme cases that it issues an advisory or where there is breakdown of constitutional machinery, it can invoke powers under Articles 356. The CBI’s powers to investigate public servants of the State is restricted to cases where the States specifically consent to the investigating agency or where the High Courts or the Supreme Court issues a direction to the CBI to so investigate.
What happened in Delhi yesterday, therefore, merits a comment. My comment is not concerned with the fairness or otherwise of the fixation of prices of natural gas. Aggrieved persons are entitled to raise the issue in Parliament and even seek an investigation directly from the Centre or through a court process. The issue is can the State government, through its Anti-Corruption Branch, investigate a decision taken by the Central Government?
Delhi is a Union Territory with a State assembly. Legislative and Executive jurisdiction of Delhi is circumscribed by Article 239AA. Entries 1, 2 and 18 of the State List under the Seventh Schedule are not applicable to Delhi. Entry 1 deals with public order, Entry 2 with police and Entry 18 with land. Thus powers to regulate public order and police are currently not with the Legislative Assembly of Delhi. Executive powers are co-extensive with legislative powers. The Delhi government has, therefore, no police powers. What thus is the function of the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi Government? The Anti-Corruption Branch is part of the Vigilance Directorate of the Delhi Government. In pith and substance, it is the function related to vigilance and not to the police powers. In relation to the vigilance it has all the powers to deal with erring public servants and departments of the Delhi government. Thus for the Vigilance Directorate of Delhi government or the Anti-Corruption Branch under it, to possess unlimited powers of the police within the geographical territory of Delhi would imply that Entry 2 of the State list is made applicable to Delhi. This has been specifically prohibited by Article 239AA of the Constitution. This would further imply a parallel jurisdiction in relation to the functioning of the Central government located in the National Capital. The Central government, would parallelly be both under its own Vigilance jurisdiction and that of the Delhi government’s Vigilance jurisdiction. This would imply, that from the Prime Minister to the Cabinet Secretary to all public servants would be susceptible to the jurisdiction of the State government. The existence of these police powers itself is doubtful. To put the Central Government under the police jurisdiction of the State government would be a constitutional monstrosity. It would be violation of federal principles in reverse. Compliance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution requires restraint and statesmanship. Constitutional institutions cannot be preserved by acts of adventurism. I seriously doubt the correctness of the judicial opinion which holds otherwise.
The ‘single-point directive’ applicable to the Public Servants of the rank of Joint Secretary and above states that before investigating officers falling under it, consent of the Central government is required. The Supreme Court had struck down this directive on the ground that it had no statutory backing. The statutory backing was enacted, which has since then been challenged before the Supreme Court. One of the rationales behind the controversial ‘single-point directive’ was that law and order and policing are State subjects. What if a Sub-Inspector of Police in a State were to summon the Prime Minister or the Cabinet Secretary for investigation? This power could also be misused for political reasons. The opinion expressed was that before such an investigation is undertaken, prior permission of Central government is required. The ‘single- point directive’ has been criticized. The action of the Delhi government in wanting to investigate the decision of the Central government has underscored the rationale behind the ‘single-point directive’. The AAP government must realize that enthusiasm and adventurism may not set the best of constitutional precedents.