It is not a “no” or a “yes” from the Bharatiya Janata Party on two crucial pieces of legislation it wants passed — the nuclear civil liability Bill and the foreign universities Bill.
Party president Nitin Gadkari has asked the two leaders of Opposition — Sushma Swaraj in the Lok Sabha and Arun Jaitley in the Rajya Sabha — to take a view keeping in mind the “national interest.”
The party's complaint is that the Manmohan Singh government has been less than transparent on the two proposed pieces of legislation and has “not consulted the Opposition,” as general secretary Ananth Kumar said here on Thursday. He was reminded that National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon had called on both Mr. Jaitley and Ms. Swaraj to explain in some detail the nuclear liability Bill and to ask for their support. More recently, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal had met Murli Manohar Joshi to explain the proposed foreign universities Bill. He dismissed that by saying the draft bills had not been given to the party.
However, he made it clear, as Mr. Jaitley had done earlier, that the BJP would have no difficulty in going along with the nuclear liability Bill if the government were to make it crystal clear in the Bill itself that it did not apply to private operators of nuclear plants, whether Indian or foreign. A second point of difference could be the cap of Rs. 500-crore liability spelt out for the operator.
On the move to allow foreign universities to set up house here through outreach campuses, the BJP has so far not made public its views. Although Mr. Sibal has delivered a confidential note to Mr. Joshi — the former HRD Minister in the Vajpayee government — the party has continued to complain of “non-transparency” and “non-consultation” by the government. When Mr. Kumar was asked for the party's view, all that he said was that the responsibility of forming an opinion in “national interest” has been entrusted to the two parliamentary party leaders.
Mr. Kumar also made it clear that the BJP would move a cut motion in the ensuing second part of the budget session and it was up to the other parties to give or not to give their support. Floor coordination on the issue has been left to Ms. Swaraj.
Women's Bill
What is also becoming clearer is that notwithstanding the BJP's continued assertion of support for the women's Bill, the condition of no marshal to be used and the Bill to be voted upon amid total order and peace in the House are seen to be conditions meant to thwart the passing of the Bill.
The party started talking about this conditional support after several party MPs openly revolted, even threatening to defy any whip that may be issued in favour of the Bill. At a meeting held at the residence of L.K. Advani soon after the Rajya Sabha adopted the legislation, many MPs charged House leader Arun Jaitley with unnecessarily going out of his way to help the government pass the Bill. “Why is the BJP being proactive? Let the government do what it wants,” was the refrain from BJP MPs.
