Two Opposition members in Lok Sabha today gave notices of a privilege motion against Law Minister Arun Jaitley for ‘‘misleading’’ the House on the issue of alleged dropping of the conspiracy charge against Dy PM L K Advani, Human Resources Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and seven others in the Babri Masjid demolition case. Congress Chief Whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Muslim League’s G.M. Banatwala, who raised the matter during the zero hour, sought to know the fate of their notices. The Speaker told them: ‘‘The matter is under my consideration.’’ SPEAKER OF THE DAY Maya Singh, BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha today said that notwithstanding the surge of women power in grassroot politics due to the one-thirds seats reserved for them in panchayats, the women elected are often treated shabbily. She gave specific instances of women members of the panchayats in Madhya Pradesh, her home state, being disrobed, raped, beaten with shoes and even being forced to end their lives. Congress members smelt a rat in Singh’s remarks and quickly objected to her singling out the Congress-ruled state. However, Singh said ‘‘she as a woman too felt ashamed to realise the realities of grass root politics in India”. She claimed a woman sarpanch had committed suicide after she was regularly harassed by officials who were demanding money. “Women members are often ridiculed as dummies for the menfolk of their families,” she added. There are some 10 lakh women among the 30 lakh elected members of panchayats in India. The two members alleged in their notices that Jaitley had ‘‘suppressed’’ facts and ‘‘misled’’ the House over the Babri Masjid demolition case. Jaitley had stated in a letter to the Speaker: ‘‘The CBI has not diluted any case, dropped any charge against any accused person. Section 120 B was never a charge in the Rae Bareli chargesheet and the question of dropping it does not arise.’’ While Joshi told that the notices were under his consideration, BJP chief whip Vijay Kumar Malhotra was heard saying that similar moves should be initiated against them if their allegations were found false. Malhotra told reporters later: ‘‘If the privilege motion against Jaitley is found to be wrong, we will move one against the Opposition.’’ However, Jaitley argues that the issue is not that the CBI dropped the conspiracy charge from an Ayodhya case but that the Narasimha Rao Government made ‘‘an unsuccessful attempt’’ to foist that charge on BJP leaders. Seeking to turn the tables on the Opposition, Jaitley produced documentary evidence in Parliament on Wednesday of the then UP governor, Motilal Vora, having foiled a move in September 1993 to club FIR No 198 (against Advani & Co for their inflammatory speeches) with FIR No 197 (dealing with the demolition of Babri Masjid). But barely a month later, a notification was issued merging FIR No 198 with 197 without following, he alleged, the statutory procedure of taking the consent of the the governor as well as the Allahabad High Court. It was on account of this illegality that the high court, Jaitley added, separated FIR 198 from the conspiracy to demolish case and the CBI is accordingly trying Advani & Co in Rae Bareli purely on the charge of delivering inflammatory speeches.
