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| Dropping PRC bill | | A master stroke by Congress Takes wind out of BJP’s sailes | |
By Yash Bhasin
With a single stroke the Congress on Monday April 5 gave unceremonious burial to the PRC (Disqualification) bill, which was introduced in J&K Upper House by a PDP member Murtza Khan on March 8. During this 3 days less then a month period the controversial bill had generated much heat inside the legislature as well as outside, with Jammu based political, social & religious groups sulking over it.
The bill sought disqualification of a girls from her right to permanent State resident certificate, in case she marries a non permanent state resident boy, as well as to cancel the permanent State residentship of a woman getting entitlement to this right by marrying a permanent State resident boy, in case the marriage is annulled through divorce or with the death of the husband, in case the girl chooses to go back to live out of the State.
An agitational atmosphere was being built up against the anti-women, regionally & religiously divisive bill. The meticulously chalked out exercise to drop the bill on procedural grounds has taken the wind out of the sailes of all those groups who were contemplating agitation over the issue, particularly the BJP & J&K NPP who were hoping to derive political dividends riding on the band wagon of the bill, which is perceived as hitting the interest of Jammu people, mainly who marry their girls out side the State. It has also dashed to the ground the dreams of Sang Parivar Organization like VHP & other forums created specifically for this purpose. The Bar Association Jammu (BAJ) which was presently spear heading the movement against the bill, with RSS pulling the strings from behind & getting support from various quarters in Jammu, has been disarmed, with opportunity snached from it to repeat its role played in the agitation over Darbaar move row about two decades ago. The bandh call given by BAJ, for April 6 & supported by BJP, J&K NPP & various small political groups & socio-cultural & trade organizations was rendered in fructuous in the light of Deputy Chairman legislative Council Ravinder Singh Micky, a Congress man giving is ruling in the House that the bill stood null & Void, since being a constitutional amendment bill the same could not be taken up in the Upper House & must origin in the State Assembly.
Congress MLC Ravinder Sharma, a lawyer by profession, played the key role by raising the procedural issue, stating that such a bill could only be introduced in the assembly & not in the Council & if a constitutional error had been committed earlier by allowing the bill to be introduced in the Council, the same should be rectified by dropping the same. The Deputy Chairman killed the bill on technical grounds, quoting section 147 of State constitution.
Strangely while all the Congress members in the House were unanimous in demanding dropping of the bill on technical ground, the NC members remained mute spectators. The PDP which had focused all its attention & energies in support of another controversial bill in the State Assembly on the day, seeking ban on inter district recruitments on the government jobs, was found napping & caught unaware over this master maneuver by the Congress. The script of the play enacted in the J&K Upper House is supposed to have been written in New Delhi, with Congress President Sonia Gandhi as its main author. The same appears to have been well rehearsled in Jammu, outside the House. With this the Congress in J&K has rectified its mistake committed on March 8 by allowing the bill to be introduced in the State Council. The Revenue Minister, Raman Bhalla, a Congress man too has washed off his earlier error of judgment to not block the bill at its introduction stage. He was in the vanguard on Monday supporting dropping of the bill.
Strangely, the PDP which claims to be the strongest votary of the bill, has not reacted over the Congress maneuver to kill the bill. It confirms the doubts that party was non serious over the issue, realizing it well that being a constitutional amendment bill, requiring two third majority for its adoption in both the Houses of legislature, the same could not succeed, with supposed supporters of the bill lacking the number. Its non seriousness over the issue was exposed earlier, when its two members who had moved the similar bill in the State Assembly & which was listed in the business of the House two days earlier, had remained absent from the House, in keeping with the boycott of the proceedings announced by the PDP. With their absence from the House the bill was lapsed. The PDP had boycotted the proceedings of both Houses of legislature over a minor issue of withdrawal of security to one of the party member & non providing of Govt. vehicles to some of its members. If the party could take back its boycott & attended the assembly on April 5 to support the other controversial bill, seeking ban on inter district recruitments, why it could not relaxed its boycott decision at least in the case of its two members who had jointly moved PRC (disqualification) bill in the assembly? Obviously its move in this regard was only a political maneuver to put NC in defensive & create wedge between the two coalition partners, the NC & the Congress, who are believed to be having divergent views on the subject. But the Congress has the last laugh, having outmaneuvered the PDP in this case by dropping the bill on procedural grounds, without letting it to be debated on its merit, thus sparing the NC of the predicament to take sides.
However, the last word on the issue has not been spoken. The sword of Damocles still keeps on hanging over the heads of women with the supporters of the move open to moving similar bill in the assembly at any time. A mechanism needs be evolved to give the issue a final burial leaving no scope for its raking up again and again after some interval. The sword of uncertainty over the issue should be removed for all times to come.
In cutting the guardian knot over the bill, the Congress has repeated the hat trick after two decades less by two years. In 1982 the NC government in the State had got passed Resellement bill (Bill No. 9) in the State legislature, providing for restoration of the property to the evacuees to Pakistan & POK between 1947 & 1954, their decedents or relatives in case they choose to come back to the State & settle here, with permanent State resident rights restored to them. The BJP then had launched & agitation in the State against the alleged black law & was contemplating to extend the agitation at the country level. But the Congress government in the Center headed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi in a single stroke stalled the implementation of the Act, with State Governor asked to refer the same to the Supreme Court for its opinion. In this way it was put in the cold storage. Riding on the piggy bag of this hat trick, the Congress won over whelming majority of seats in Jammu region in the 1983 assembly elections, winning all the seats in Hindu majority pockets of the region. The BJP drew blank.
In Box:
(Mechanism need be evolved to give permanent burial to the move, leaving no scope for the issue in this regard to be raked again & again, with some interval.)
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