PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

TACKLING ISSUE: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.R. Dasmunsi, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta at an all-party meeting prior to the Parliament session, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI : An all-party meeting here on Wednesday left it to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to condemn "in one voice" the alleged human trafficking by Babubhai Katara, Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Gujarat. He was held by the police at the Delhi airport while trying to board a flight with a woman travelling on his wife's passport.

Though there was a consensus that Mr. Katara should not be suspended, it is felt that the Speaker may well ask the MP not to attend the House till the matter was settled, as was done in the case of the 10 MPs caught in the cash-for-questions scandal.

Reservation issue

The meeting witnessed a passionate mention of the issue of reservation for the Other Backward Classes in the Centrally-administered educational institutions. Some members, including S. Ramadoss (PMK), wanted the matter taken up on the very first day and Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party) talked of the need to tackle what he called "judicial over-reach." However, the Government view, which prevailed, was that Parliament should wait till the Chief Justice of India heard the matter on May 8. The BJP was silent on the subject.

On the Katara case some leaders — D.P. Yadav of the RJD and Khagen Das of the CPI(M) — demanded that Mr. Katara be expelled from the Lok Sabha, there were others who felt it would not be right for Parliament to set up its own committee to investigate the matter — as was done in the cash-for-questions scandal — already being looked at by the police. BJP deputy leader V.K. Malhotra made the point that a uniform procedure should be evolved to handle all cases of wrongdoing by MPs, including those charge-sheeted by courts.

The Speaker is likely to call another all-party meeting during the session to examine the issue of MPs misusing their position or indulging in any criminal activity. There was also the view that the Katara case was somewhat different from the cash-for-questions scandal as in the current case there was no direct linkage of the scandal with Mr.

Katara's functions as an MP. As for the diplomatic passport he holds as an MP, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi explained that these were given to all MPs and their spouses only after 1977 at the initiative of the then External Affairs Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The Government proposal that the Finance Bill be taken up for consideration and passing on May 3 was accepted at the meeting, despite some objections.

Earlier it was to have been taken up about a week later, but the Government explained that Finance Minister P. Chidambaram would be out of the country between May 6 and 10.

BJP's attack

The BJP attacked the Government for trying to "rush through" the Finance Bill, while the CPI objected to the Finance Minister fixing a meeting with the World Bank when Parliament was in session. Various parties have prioritised the issues they would like to raise.

Mr. Malhotra said that at a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance leaders earlier in the day, it was decided they would raise internal security, inflation, special economic zones and the Quattrocchi extradition.

The Left was interested in discussions on price rise and foreign direct investment in retail. The BJP also wanted a statement from the Prime Minister on India-Pakistan talks. "He should take the country into confidence," Mr. Malhotra said.

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