Rajya Sabha clears 10% quota for poorer sections in general category

NEW DELHI, Jan 9: A bill to introduce 10 per cent quota for poorer sections in general category has been cleared by parliament. The Rajya Sabha approved the bill on Wednesday after a marathon debate that saw most opposition parties demanding that the legislation be sent to a select committee. But when the government pushed for a vote, almost everyone voted for the bill.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said the constitution amendment bill had been supported by 165 of the 172 members present. Seven members voted against it. The Lok Sabha had cleared the bill yesterday.

The 10 per cent quota covers nearly 190 million people from the general category and is seen as an effort by the BJP-led national coalition to reach out to upper caste groups and once-dominant agrarian communities such as the Patidars, Jats, Gujjars and Marathas who have been lobbying for reservation.

Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, who had spoken minutes earlier, said the constitution amendment bill was brought with clean intentions. On Congress leaders questioning how reservation on economic criteria could be introduced under the Constitution, Gehlot wondered how the Congress had hoped to deliver on its 2014 manifesto for a quota for the poor.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the 10 per cent quota rule, once it comes into force, would apply to all central and state government jobs. He also stressed that it would not run afoul of the Supreme Court verdict capping reservations at 50 per cent, insisting that this limit was only applicable for reservations on caste lines.

The Congress, which supported the legislation in the Lok Sabha, was sharply critical of the haste with which the government was trying to push the bill, which senior leader Kapil Sibal said, suffered from three fundamental flaws relating to its implementation and constitutionality.

“We support the bill, but are saddened by the way it has been brought. It’s a very important bill, so it should have been sent to a select committee,” Kapil Sibal, a former minister said.

Sibal, who like Ravi Shankar Prasad is a noted lawyer, appeared to take a dig at Prasad when he said in a lighter vein, how lawyers are passionate about the law but when they become ministers, are passionate about ignoring the law.

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan welcomed the Constitution Amendment Bill and demanded that the government should move ahead for reservation in private sector.

“I am happy that government has brought this bill that provides reservation for the economically backward upper castes. This bill does not disturb the existing 50 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes,” said the Dalit leader.

The opposition, including the Congress, had strongly protested in the Rajya Sabha during the debate and demanded that the bill be sent to a select committee. MPs from the Congress, the DMK, the RJD and the AAP raised slogans against the government.

DMK’s Kanimozhi demanded that the bill should be sent to a select committee for further scrutiny. Her demand was supported by several other members.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Goel accused the opposition of seeking to stall the passage of the bill. Replying to this charge, Congress’s Anand Sharma asserted that his party supported the bill while Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Manoj Jha said the legislation was “interference with the basic structure of the Constitution”.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’Brien, in his scathing attack on the government, accused it of committing “fraud with the poor and youth” on jobs and “spitting on the Constitution” by moving bills for passage without proper legislative scrutiny.

Sparks, paper planes fly as Rafale row hits Parliament

NEW DELHI, Dec 2: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a face-to-face debate on the controversial Rafale jet fighter deal, escalating his onslaught on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and refusing to drop demands for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the purchase.

Gandhi demanded answers from Modi to four questions he posed at a press conference, after the government on the floor of the Lok Sabha again rejected a JPC probe, saying the Supreme Court had already satisfied its “conscience” on the deal.

Gandhi wanted to know whether any objections had been raised by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to the 2016 contract for 36 Rafale fighter planes that replaced one for 126 aircraft the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) finalised but didn’t sign; whose decision it was to sign a new contract , whether it was the prime minister’s or the IAF’s, and if it wasn’t the latter’s, whether it had objected to a price increase; and why an offset deal had been given to businessman Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, which had never made a plane, at the expense of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), which has been building planes for 70 years.

“How did Make in India become Make in France?” Gandhi asked, referring to the NDA government’s decision to buy the 36 planes in a flyaway condition from Dassault Aviation. Under the UPA-era deal, HAL was to manufacture 108 of the 126 planes in India.

“Just give me 20 minutes with the Prime Minister one-on-one on Rafale and then you decide what is what. But the Prime Minister doesn’t have the guts...,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi said the price of the Rafale aircraft was disclosed by Jaitley himself in the House when he mentioned that the entire deal was worth Rs 58,000 crore. “If you divide Rs 58,000 crore by 36, it comes to around Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft,” he said. Gandhi described Rafale as a “good” aircraft and said its capability and quality can’t be questioned.

The Shiv Sena, an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), backed Gandhi’s demand for a JPC probe of the deal. Finance minister Arun Jaitley insisted that there was no need for one, citing the Supreme Court’s December ruling on the matter. The court said there was no reason to doubt the process of procurement and ruled: “There is no reason for interference in the choice of offset partner and perception of individuals can’t be the basis for roving inquiry in sensitive issue of defence procurement.”

Gandhi took on the Prime Minister for his absence on Wednesday from the Lok Sabha, where the Congress party’s Sushmita Dev and Rajiv Satav flew paper planes as the debate raged. “It is very clear that the Prime Minister does not have the guts to come to Parliament and confront the questions,” Gandhi said. “The entire nation is asking a direct question about the Prime Minister and the entire nation is asking why the Prime Minister can speak for one-and-a-half-hour in a staged interview and not answer the fundamental questions of Rafale,” Gandhi said in an apparent reference to Modi’s interview aired on news channels on Tuesday.

The Congress president sought to dismiss Modi’s statement in the interview in which he said the allegations over the Rafale deal had not been directed at him personally but were against the government. “He [Modi] was looking tired, nervous [in the interview]. He said no one has pointed fingers at me but the whole country is pointing fingers at him,” Gandhi said.

The House witnessed drama after Gandhi sought speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s permission to play an audio clip of a purported conversation between Goa’s health minister Vishwajit Rane and an anonymous person in which he quoted former defence minister and chief minister Manohar Parrikar as having told a cabinet meeting last week that he had Rafale files in his bedroom. While Parrikar said the clip was an attempt to fabricate facts, Rane too dismissed the audio tape as “doctored”.

Jaitley said the audio was “false and fabricated” and asked Gandhi if he could authenticate it. The finance minister warned Gandhi that he may have to face a privilege motion and even expulsion in case it turned out to be fabricated.

Amid uproar, which caused a brief adjournment, Gandhi said he would not play it and authenticate it, prompting Jaitley to say that he was “scared” as he knew it was false. “This man [Gandhi] lies and lies repeatedly,” Jaitley said. The Speaker also disallowed Gandhi’s request to play the audio.

The controversy is about the NDA government’s decision to enter a $8.7-billion government-to-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later, replacing the UPA-era agreement.

The deal has become controversial with the opposition, led by the Congress, claiming that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is Rs 1,670 crore for each, three times the Rs 526 crore, the initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft. It has also claimed the previous deal included a technology transfer agreement with HAL.

The NDA has not disclosed details of the price, but the UPA deal, struck in 2012, was not a viable one, former defence minister Manohar Parrikar has previously said, implying that it would have never been closed and that, therefore, any comparison is moot. Indeed, the UPA was not able to close the deal till 2014, largely over discussions related to pricing of items not included in the initial bid. The deal has become controversial on account of the fact that one of the offset deals signed by Dassault is with the Reliance Group.

The Rafale deal was one of the Congress’s main planks in the recent round of state elections in which the Congress deposed the BJP in the key heartland states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. It is likely to keep up the attack on the ruling party in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well. The BJP has, meanwhile, sought to corner the Congress over charges of wrongdoing in the Rs 3,600 crore deal to buy helicopters from AgustaWestland of Italy.

“I thought daal me kuch kala hai but puri daal hi kali hai,” he said, quoting a Hindi adage.” A JPC is needed as it will bring out the truth. Modiji had bypassed processes and the contract was snatched from HAL.”

Later, at a news conference at Congress headquarters, Gandhi brought up Modi saying in the interview that the charges were not being levelled against him, but his government. “Don’t know in which world he is living. Narendra Modi-ji, the questions are being raised against you and people are asking you why did you give Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani. So, I found it very interesting that the Prime Minister thinks questions are being raised on someone else.”

To be sure, the Rs 30,000 crore figure is the money that Dassault would have to spend on offset purchases from Indian component makers as part of the terms of the deal and the French plane maker has said it had chosen several offset partners besides Reliance Group.

Countering Jaitley’s assertions that the cost of the jets was enhanced due to new weapons, Gandhi said the Modi government’s defence of the deal was inconsistent. “The 2007 request for proposal (RFP) documents clearly state that direct flyaway aircraft be delivered with full complements of weapons and the weapons package was integral to the flyaway aircraft,” he said and read out the RFP that enumerated some of the weapons and equipment annexed with it. “Jaitley has a habit of telling lies one after the other, but the reality is Rafale deal was made to steal from the exchequer. Chowkidar chor hai [watchman is a thief],” he alleged. The Congress chief continued tweeting questions addressed to the PM till late on Wednesday.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspends 26 AIADMK, TDP members for five days

NEW DELHI, Jan 2: Twenty-six Lok Sabha members belonging to AIADMK and TDP were on Wednesday suspended for five days by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for causing “grave disorder” in the House by storming near the podium, tearing papers and throwing them towards the Chair.

The AIADMK members were protesting against the proposal for a dam across Cauvery river in Karnataka while the TDP members were demanding special status to Andhra Pradesh. When the House was to take up a discussion on the Rafale deal, the AIADMK and TDP members trooped near the Speaker’s podium and started sloganeering.

Within seconds, some of the protesting members tore some papers and threw them towards the Chair.

Mahajan warned the members that she will name them. As they did not relent, she then began reading out the names of the members who had disrupted the House session. “All of them stand suspended for five consecutive sittings of the House,” she said and then adjourned the House for the day.

Later, the suspended AIADMK members took out a procession within the Parliament complex shouting slogans against the government.

Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, who belongs to the AIADMK, said they have cast no aspersions on the Speaker but have reservations against the NDA government as it had done nothing for Tamil Nadu.

Triple talaq bill cleared by Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI, Dec 27: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed an amended Triple Talaq bill after a four hour-long debate, but the Congress and some other parties walked out before the vote because their demand to refer the legislation to a joint select committee was spurned by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2018 was passed by the Lower House with 245 MPs voting in favour and 11 opposing it. Other than the Congress legislators, the AIADMK, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Samajwadi Party MPs walked out.

The Centre now faces an uphill task in pushing the bill through the Upper House, where the NDA doesn’t have a majority. Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad spoke about the “political pressure” in the Rajya Sabha during the debate, but added that the government is hopeful about the bill’s passage.

During the prolonged debate, all parties unequivocally spoke about the evils of instant Triple Talaq, or Talaq-e-Biddat, the practice of immediate divorce. Opposition parties, however, protested against the provision to make instant Triple Talaq a criminal offence while some leaders demanded that the proposed three-year jail term for offending husbands be reduced.

Prasad justified the jail term and said “deterrence is always important”.

Union textiles minister Smriti Irani and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Meenakshi Lekhi provided statistics to back her party’s claim that even after the Supreme Court’s verdict on August 22, 2017, banning the Islamic practice of instant divorce, instant Triple Talaq continued to be practised, necessitating the law and provision of punishment.

Lekhi quoted extensively from theological texts and said that even Prophet Muhammad was opposed to the practice.

Prasad also defended the promulgation of an ordinance to this effect in September this year. He said the bill was in Rajya Sabha and so the government wanted to “address an urgent issue”.

The ordinance, he added, helped reduce the number of such instant divorces.

The original bill, introduced and passed in the Lok Sabha on December 28, 2017, made instant divorce a non-bailable offence; the government amended the bill to make it bailable after confronting criticism and political protests.

Another amendment is that only the affected woman or her blood relative can file a police complaint against the husband. The earlier bill allowed anyone to lodge a complaint. The amended legislation also makes the offence compoundable by a magistrate after hearing the wife.

Several speakers referred to the famous Shah Bano case of 1986 in which she won the right to get alimony from her divorced husband, but the then Congress government brought about a bill to reverse the Supreme Court’s order so as to appease the Muslim community.

Many also referred to Shayara Banu, the first Muslim woman who sought a ban on instant divorce. Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Lekhi slammed the Congress for its government’s stand in 1986 and added that the party lost a historic chance back then.

Prasad, Naqvi and other ruling party members emphasised that the bill was not against any community but only about gender rights and justice. “Don’t weigh the bill on the scales of politics. The bill is about humanity and justice,” Prasad said, introducing the bill on Thursday afternoon.

Naqvi added that “this issue is not related to Islam but related to social customs”.

He also spoke about how social evils like sati (burning a widow) or child marriage have been abolished through law.

Those who spoke in favour of the bill rattled off a long list of Islamic countries such Sudan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Syria, Malaysia, Cyprus, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that have banned instant Triple Talaq.

BJP chief Amit Shah demanded an apology from the Congress “for decades of injustice” and hailed the bill as “a historic step to ensure equality, dignity of Muslim women”.

Congress lawmaker Sushmita Dev alleged that Prasad, despite being a lawyer, has misread the top court verdict. “What are you giving Muslim women in the name of empowerment? Nothing but a criminal case. This law is not about empowering Muslim women but penalising Muslim men. Let this bill go to stakeholders, listen to the voice of the people. We have no right to play messiah,” she said.

While the government managed to win support from allies such as the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal, the NDA’s prominent supporter, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Tamil Nadu’s ruling party, opposed the bill.

The Dravidian party’s senior MP Anwhar Raajhaa maintained that the proposed act is against the provisions of sharia law.

BJP ally Shiv Sena took the opportunity to demand a Uniform Civil Code and the scrapping of Article 370 that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Mohammed Salim of the CPI(M) said if the government was serious about empowerment of Muslim women, it should first talk about communal violence and stop profiling the community.

The NCP’s Supriya Sule questioned the need for an ordinance, “Why did you use the ordinance route if it was only for social justice and not a political issue,” she asked.

Congress MP Sunil Jakhar said: “The flawed triple talaq bill is pushed in the name of women’s empowerment.”

BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab thanked the government for accepting some of his earlier demands in the bill but opposed the penal provision. “We want a provision of fine, not jail,” he told the House.

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