New Delhi, August 2
Acutely aware of the arithmetic in the two Houses of Parliament, the BJP-led NDA government accepted the Opposition viewpoint and dropped certain contentious clauses in the draft electoral reforms Bill.
The Congress, the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and the RJD demanded that Clause 8 (B), which pertains to barring persons against whom charges have been framed in two cases of heinous crimes from contesting elections, should be scrapped. This demand has been accepted by the Atal Behari Vajpayee government.
As regards Clause 33 (B), the all-party meeting specially convened by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to evolve a consensus on the electoral reforms Bill agreed that those against whom charges had been framed after two years of proceedings would be obliged to provide the necessary information in their affidavit.
On the specific issue of declaring assets and liabilities, law-makers shall furnish the relevant information to the presiding officer after the elections.
Union Law and Justice Minister Jana Krishnamurthy said here today after a 90-minute meeting with the Opposition that the overwhelming opinion of the political parties and groups was that disqualification should occur only on the basis of conviction.
Mr Krishnamurthy said his ministry would draft a suitable Bill incorporating necessary changes on the basis of the all-party meeting and table the legislative measure in this session of Parliament.
On suggestions that disqualification should be resorted to only after the final conviction, the minister said the issue would be further debated when the Bill was taken up for discussion in Parliament.
After the meeting, former Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj (Congress) said his party was opposed to disqualification of a member without the person being held guilty by a court of law.
A CPM member, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, said his party favoured early implementation of the recommendations contained in the reports of the Indrajit Gupta Committee, the Dinesh Goswami Committee and the Law Commission.
Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav of the RJD maintained that disqualification could only be made if a candidate was convicted and that too the conviction should be final.
Mr Yerran Naidu of the TDP echoed Mr Yadav’s views and said information about a candidate’s antecedents should be left to the presiding officer of the legislature.
