The Hindu : MLA's bid for spotlight leaves Cong. in a spot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 28, 2002

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MLA's bid for spotlight leaves Cong. in a spot

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI NOV. 27. The dissident Congress MLA, Mukesh Sharma, just refuses to learn and mend his ways. Despite being of the ruling party, he behaves like he still is in the opposition and leaves no stone unturned to embarrass his own Congress Government even if it means adopting "unethical methods''. This is exactly what he did on Tuesday but failed to achieve his objective.

Known for his Parliamentary skills and intelligence, Mr. Sharma, also spokesman of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, took the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, his own Government and officials for a ride on an issue which should not have been at all discussed in the Assembly.

In the process, he ended up annoying not only the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, but also the Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, and the Assembly Secretariat. In fact, the manner in which Mr. Sharma sought to raise the issue of "proposed'' introduction of parking charges for residents of Delhi has raised eyebrows not only in the Vidhan Sabha but also within the party.

What was most shocking is that he sought to raise an issue which was only in a proposal stage and had not been discussed in the Standing Committee of MCD.

The Corporation had not even discussed the issue at any stage and it was being debated in the newspaper columns and in the electronic media merely on speculation. But Mr.Sharma, always looking for the attention of the media and wanting to bulldoze his counterparts in the Assembly, somehow convinced the Assembly Secretariat to admit his Motion under Rule 107 and have a discussion on the issue despite protests from various quarters. In fact, Mr. Sharma had sought to show total lack of confidence in the Congress ruled MCD by raising the issue in the Assembly. The fact that the Hastsal MLA wanted the Delhi Assembly to take up a discussion and reject the proposal indicated that he had little faith in the MCD Congress leadership and wanted the State Government to act before things go wrong. The Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, was fretting and fuming and is learnt to have taken up the matter with the Speaker. But many party MLAs felt that all that the Motion of Mr. Sharma, if taken up for discussion, could have achieved was to stall the debate on the law and order situation missing an opportunity to pin down the BJP-led Government on the issue of deteriorating law and order situation in the Capital.

``It is unfortunate that the member sought to mislead everybody by raising an issue details about which are still to be made public. The House just cannot discuss anything and everything.

Tomorrow somebody could move a Motion to discuss the Iraq crisis and something happening in United States. This does not mean that the House will admit that Motion. Such situations should be avoided in future as they not only hurt the sanctity of the institution but also party interests,'' remarked a senior official.

But then clearly Mr. Sharma's plans were derailed by the strong stand taken by the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the opposition by some Congress MLAs to taking up a discussion on the issue which did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Government or Assembly.

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