The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, November 25, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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NDA going slow on Hamdard
Gujral, Sukhbir, Tarlochan in race for RS seat
From T.R.Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, NOV 24—The diqualification of Barjinder Singh Hamdard, an Independent member of the Rajya Sabha from Punjab, is delicately balanced as the matter is in the court of Union External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in his capacity as the Leader of the House of Elders.

Going by the letter and spirit of the rules of the Rajya Sabha, Mr Hamdard attracts the disqualification clause as he has missed more than 60 consecutive sittings of the House.

As this is the first time that such a situation has arisen in Parliament since Independence, it is being viewed as a grey area because it will become a precedent . The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government seems in no hurry to come to terms in dealing with Mr Hamdard’s disqualification as a Rajya Sabha member.

The Rajya Sabha Secretary-General,Mr R.C.Tripathi,said that the issue of Mr Hamdard’s disqualification had to be decided by the House. Amazingly,the Rajya Sabha is yet to be seized of the matter even though Mr Hamdard attracts the provision of disqualification for having missed more than 60 consecutive sittings of the House.

Several friends of Mr Hamdard in the Rajya Sabha had pleaded with him on the telephone during the monsoon session of Parliament in August to be present for at least a day or two so as not to face the ignominy of disqualification.

When the monsoon session adjourned sine die,Mr Hamdard was just two sittings away from being disqualified. The rules of the Rajya Sabha state that if a member remained absent for 60 consecutive sittings of the House, then the membership stands terminated.

At the same time the disqualification of Rajya Sabha member under such circumstances is not automatic. The leader of the House or a person specially designated by Mr Jaswant Singh has to come forward with a motion seeking disqualification of the member concerned which has to be approved by the Rajya Sabha.

It is apparent that Mr Hamdard, who became a member of the Rajya Sabha with the backing of the SAD, is now reluctant to continue because of personal reasons. He had made his position clear by sending a letter of resignation to the Vice-President, Mr Krishan Kant, who is the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

In the first instance, Mr Kant had rejected Mr Hamdard’s resignation letter on the ground that it did not conform to the prescribed format. The matter has since been hanging fire. Now that Mr Hamdard has absented himself for more than 62 consecutive sittings of the Rajya Sabha, he attracts the disqualification provision.

Consequently, some ticklish questions are doing the rounds for which ready and convincing answers are not available. For all practical intents and purposes, if Mr Hamdard surfaces in the immediate future, signs the Rajya Sabha register and takes his seat in the House before the motion seeking his disqualification is moved, then what will happen. It is anybody’s guess that in such an event Mr Hamdard might well continue being a member of the Rajya Sabha despite absenting himself for more than 60 consecutive sittings. That is the hushed talk doing the rounds in the corridors of Parliament House with everyone watching keenly how the Hamdard issue is dealt with.

Meanwhile, lobbies have been activated in Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s SAD. Even as the number of Rajya Sabha aspirants in the SAD is swelling by the day, the Congress is understandably nonchalant as it is nowhere in the reckoning.

Sources said a forerunner for the Rajya Sabha seat is former union minister of state Sukhbir Singh Badal,who lost the Faridkot seat during the previous general election. The chief minister’s son was recently appointed a general secretary of the SAD.

There are some other strands of view doing the rounds in the SAD about who should be picked in Mr Hamdard’s place to represent Punjab in the Rajya Sabha. One section feels that Inder Kumar Gujral, who had done his bit for Punjab during his short reign as Prime Minister, should be accomodated.

A major criticism of the Rajya Sabha members from Punjab is that they have proved to be ineffective and lack perspective. Therefore, another section in the SAD firmly believes that it is time to send a highly vocal individual to the Rajya Sabha who champions the cause of Punjab forcefully. In this context the name of National Commission for Minorities (NCM)Vice-Chairman Tarlochan Singh is being mentioned. However, Tarlochan Singh has only completed a year out of his three-year term in the NCM.