The Congress’ four-page letter demanding the Leader of the Opposition post points out that the LoP has a larger systemic role to play as a member of panels that select the Central Vigilance Commissioner, the Chief Information Commissioner, Lokpal, the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) members and the Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha. To deny the largest Opposition party the Leader of Opposition status would therefore amount to “scuttling democracy.”
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, who is an ally of the Congress, is said to have broached the subject informally with a senior BJP Cabinet Minister pointing out that the UPA was the largest pre-poll alliance and had more than the 10 per cent strength referred to in the Speaker’s Direction 121 that the BJP had been citing as a reason to deny the Congress the post.
The BJP’s argument is that the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of the Opposition in the Parliament Act, 1977, has to be read with the Speaker’s Direction 121 that mandates that an Opposition party must get at least 10 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha to get the post.
A Central minister said if the pre-poll coalition argument is to work there must be proof that all the parties that are part of it subscribe to the same ideology, policies and programmes. Further, the rules governing the statutory bodies state that if one member is absent, it does not matter.
Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath’s remarks to a TV channel that the issue of grant of Leader of the Opposition status could be “flavoured” by the BJP has annoyed the government. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s decision on the subject would be “above party lines.”
