NEW DELHI, April 23: The Indian parliament decided on Tuesday to discuss an opposition censure motion against Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government on April 30 over the Gujarat carnage amid indications that the International Court of Justice could be brought into the picture by his foreign tormentors to address a clutch of petitions being prepared on the widely condemned anti-Muslim pogroms.
The Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, P.M. Sayeed, read out the motion that will be discussed and voted on in a house where some of Vajpayee’s key allies have threatened to go against him if he does not fire Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi before that.
The Hindu newspaper however quoted senior sources in BJP as saying on Monday that they would consider seeking a make-or-break vote of confidence, in which the rebellious allies would most likely be reined in rather than face a censure motion where the government could be seriously embarrassed by its own coalition partners.
Earlier in the day, the Opposition’s censure motion on the failure of the Gujarat government in providing security to minority community was admitted for discussion in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The motion read: “This House expresses its grave concern over the failure of the administration in ensuring the security of minority community in various parts of the country, especially in Gujarat, and urges the government to take effective steps to restore confidence of the minority communities and to protect them”.
Sayeed’s ruling came after the House was paralysed for six days, leading to adjournments without transaction of any legislative business.
While the government had demanded a short duration discussion under Rule 193, which does not involve voting, the Opposition had pressed for a Centre motion under Rule 184 that makes voting mandatory.
Giving reasons for admitting the notices, Sayeed said: “The situation in Gujarat is that there have been serious incidents of violence even subsequent to the earlier discussion in the House.”
He said these incidents have also been widespread in several districts of the state, where hundreds have been killed or injured, thousands are in relief camps and there has been extensive damage to property.
He said that the National Human Rights Commission, the Minorities Commission and independent women activists of national repute have commented on the gravity of the situation after visiting the state.
“The gravity of the ground situation is also self evident from the fact that Army has been called in to aid civil authorities. The Army deployment continues.
“In the circumstances, the Gujarat situation cannot be construed as an ordinary law and order matter which is a concern only of the state government,” he said.
What has deeply disturbed the international community is the scant humanitarian assistance available to the displaced Muslim families now camped in unhygienic conditions.
Contrary to the claims of the Union health ministry, a measles epidemic is raging in some riot relief camps of Gujarat. In the absence of proper antibiotic supply, other diseases, too, are spreading fast in the cramped and unhygienic conditions.
The government’s troubles on the international front were also compounding with each passing day of callous negligence in Gujarat, where two more people were reported killed on Tuesday.
The family of the British national, Mohammed Aswat, who was killed in the early days of the Gujarat violence, has said it is saddened by the failure of the Indian government to “even send a letter of condolence to his wife and five children, the youngest of whom is five years old.”
On Monday, a spokeswoman for the British foreign office said: “We have not been approached by the families of the British nationals and are not involved at the moment in any legal matter. That is a matter for the families and their lawyers”.
She added that “we are in touch with the families at a humanitarian level, particularly in relation to the missing men.”
Meanwhile, Vipul Thakker, a senior human rights lawyer who prepares cases for the international courts, told The Times of India in London, “the wheels are in motion to present a thoroughly-researched document to the British government to take up at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague.”
NEW DELHI, April 23: The Indian parliament decided on Tuesday to discuss an opposition censure motion against Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government on April 30 over the Gujarat carnage amid indications that the International Court of Justice could be brought into the picture by his foreign tormentors to address a clutch of petitions being prepared on the widely condemned anti-Muslim pogroms.
