CPI(M)’s notice a test for govt. in Rajya Sabha

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) hopes to test not just the government but also the Congress with its notice for a statutory motion in the Rajya Sabha against the government’s decision last week to amend the Central Excise Act to increase excise duty on petrol and diesel.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman admitted the notice. In the Lok Sabha, the Speaker admitted a separate Motion of Amendment to the Notification — moved by N. K. Premachandran (RSP) — on the same excise duty hike.

If the motion admitted by the Rajya Sabha is accepted by the House, then it will have to recommend to the Lok Sabha “that the Lok Sabha do concur in this Motion,” according to a letter sent by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to the CPI(M) admitting its notice.

Should the notice in the Rajya Sabha be approved by a majority of its members, then it would be a major embarrassment for the government, say MPs.

But it would not be a crisis. In the Lok Sabha, the government has the numbers to defeat the motion and the government’s floor managers were outwardly unfazed by the admission of the notice in the Upper House despite being in a minority there.

The Opposition MPs who are sponsoring this motion are well aware of this. This exercise is really to test the Opposition unity.