Food Bill debate stalled by TDP MPs

• TDP members protest in House as Congress leaders stage dharna outside
• Tempers flare up as TDP MPs do not relent
• Kamal Nath shouts at BJP leader MM Joshi
• BJP retorts, Sushma asks him to mend ways

Anita Saluja

New Delhi: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s pet project, the Food Security Bill, was stalled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, following the protest made by the TDP MPs who wanted the Centre to address their concerns on the Rayala-Andhra issue. “Save Rayala-Andhra” placards, displayed by the four TDP MPs were enough to force Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to adjourn the House for the day after repeated adjournments.

The BJP-led Opposition blamed the Congress for blocking the Food Bill saying that the TDP MPs had complained that since the space around the Gandhi statue at the main entrance of Parliament was occupied by the Congress Ministers, MPs and MLAs, they had no other venue to protest except in the well of the House.

Interestingly, protests staged by the Congress leaders outside Parliament led to frayed tempers inside the House. Minutes before the resumption of the Lok Sabha proceedings after repeated adjournments, when BJP senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi asked Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath as to why they had allowed the Congress MLAs from Andhra Pradesh to protest inside the premises of the Parliament, which forced the TDP MPs to protest inside, Kamal Nath allegedly shouted at him, “House chalana hamara hi kaam nahi hai” (It is not our duty alone to conduct the House). Agitated BJP leaders led by Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj raised the issue before the Speaker, forcing Kamal Nath to withdraw his words.

Swaraj advised Parliamentary Affairs Minister to speak softly.”It is not always important on what you speak but also on how you speak,” she told him that even made Sonia Gandhi nod her head. Joshi was angry with Kamal Nath over the way he spoke to him.

"How can you speak to me like this? No one has spoken to me like this in 40 years?" a furious Joshi asked. The minister admitted he had spoken in anger but insisted he did not mean any disrespect to the veteran parliamentarian."I respect Joshiji, he is a senior leader. I spoke to him angrily that the house does not belong to me and that it belonged to him also. But if my words have hurt him, I take them back," said Kamal Nath.

Sushma Swaraj said that the BJP was supporting the Food Security Bill but it was the four TDP MPs who were stalling the House. She said that she even spoke to the TDP Parliamentary Party Leader Nama Nageshwar Rao who expressed his helplessness to control his MPs as the Congress leaders at the Centre had called the MLAs and their state leaders to Parliament for demonstration in front of the Gandhi statue. The TDP MPs, he argued, had no place to protest.

Later, BJP spokesperson accused the Congress of not doing their homework on the formation of setting up a separate state of Telangana. “They should have followed the Vajpayee model,” stated Shahnawaz Hussain, as was done when three states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were formed. He said that the CWC had taken a decision but there were no signs of the Cabinet giving the final nod.

Sharad Yadav (JD-U) said he has also spoken to TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu in this regard. "I appeal to them not to obstruct the work of Parliament and not to lose the sympathy we have," he said.

Sources stated that if the TDP MPs do not listen to the Speaker even on Wednesday, she might name them leading to their suspension for the day, thus paving the way for the passage of the Food Security Bill. The Congress is desperate to pass the bill before the birth anniversary of late Rajiv Gandhi on August 20, the date fixed for the Congress-ruled states to kick start the flagship programme and if possible before the Independence Day when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can refer to the programme in his and the UPA government’s last speech from the ramparts of Red Fort.