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Journalism of Courage
Setting the stage for general elections almost nine months before schedule, the Cabinet today recommended to the President that the 13th Lok Sabha be dissolved on February 6.
The Cabinet meeting for this purpose was notified only this afternoon, with all ministers being asked to be present without the circulation of any agenda. The meeting, however, lasted longer than expected as the Cabinet waited for Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to arrive from his J&K visit.
Briefing reporters after handing over the Cabinet resolution to the President, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Advani, NDA convenor George Fernandes accompanied by Swaraj called on the President to hand over the Cabinet resolution. ‘‘The President wished us luck,’’ Swaraj told newspersons.
Swaraj said the government had waited to take this decision until after Republic Day as there was a foreign dignitary — the Brazilian President — who was in the country.
The recommendation for the dissolution was essential before the Parliament session so that vote-on-account for Railway and Finance Ministries could be placed in the Parliament. ‘‘Since the poll process cannot be complete by March 31, and after April 1 no money can be withdrawn from the exchequer, it was necessary to go in for a vote-on-account,’’ Swaraj said. ‘‘And to present the vote-on-account, the extra ordinary conditions have to be conveyed to the President,’’ she added.
The vote-on-account, in place of the regular Railway Budget, will be placed before the House on January 30 and the general vote-on-account will be placed in the Parliament on February 3.
While declining to speculate whether these statements could have any policy announcements by the Railway Miniater and the Finance Minister Swaraj said that this was their prorogative and ‘‘you will have to wait and see.’’ She however ruled out any possibility of changes in direct taxes in a vote-on-account.
Commenting on Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s letter to the President stating that the government had misused its power by not allowing the President to address the Parliament, Swaraj said that the President addresses the Parliament when the House is prorogued and a new session has to be called for. In this case, the house was not prorogued and this a continuation of the winter session of the Parliament. ‘‘I am surprised at this observation by Mrs Gandhi as her husband Rajiv Gandhi himself did not prorogue the House for 75 days between the Budget and Monsoon sessions of the Parliament,’’ Swaraj pointed out.
Swaraj said that in the first week of January the NDA had met and authorised Prime Minister Vajpayee to take a decision on the timing of the polls. ‘‘We then had a national executive meeting of the BJP where it was decided to hold early polls,’’ she said.
PTI adds: This is only the fourth time that the government of the day has recommended dissolution of the House in a bid to hold early elections. The first such instance was in 1971 when the late Indira Gandhi called early elections, riding high on the Indian Army’s victory in the liberation of Bangladesh. Subsequently, Rajiv Gandhi decided on early elections in 1984 shortly after her assassination and later in 1989, when his Government lost the Constitution Amendment Bill on Panchayat Raj in a special session in the Rajya Sabha. But in both these instances, polls were advanced just by about a couple of months before they were due.
In the earlier instances in 1991, 1997 and 1999, the Lok Sabha dissolution was forced either by withdrawal of support to the government of the day or its defeat on the floor of the House.
In 1991 and 1997, the governments of Chandrashekhar and IK Gujral fell following withdrawal of support by Congress which had initially propped them and in 1999, the Vajpayee government lost by one vote the confidence vote in Lok Sabha.
