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Mamata opposes move against citizens of foreign origin

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's attempt to buttonhole the Congress chief politically has received a setback with alliance partner Mamata Banerjee, Trinamul Congress president and Union railway minister, asserting that Sonia Gandhi is now active and efforts to isolate her could boomerang on the ruling coalition, top government sources said.

Banerjee met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Parliament recently and told him that the government should weigh the pros and cons before bringing in any legislation to outlaw Indians of foreign origin (like Gandhi) from contesting for top posts like those of president and prime minister.

"The Trinamul Congress chief apprised the prime minister of her party's assessment on moves within the BJP to push through this legislation. The prime minister has indicated that he will apply his mind on this. It will take several months before this legislation is brought before Parliament," top officials of the home ministry told rediff.com

The sources admitted that "hard-line elements" in the BJP having "direct access" to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have been asserting that the Vajpayee government would be ruling with an iron hand. These elements had been saying that the main players in 'Operation Tumbledown', like the Congress chief, would have to pay a heavy price if the Vajpayee government retained power. Now that the National Democratic Alliance has returned to power, there is considerable pressure on Vajpayee to clip Gandhi's wings by bringing forward the legislation, which has the potential of crippling her politically.

It is understood that as soon as the results of the general election were declared and the NDA obtained a comfortable majority, the hard-liners in the BJP, with some prodding from the RSS, began mounting pressure on Vajpayee to go for the Congress chief's jugular. In fact, they were clamouring to have the proposed legislation pushed through soon after the government assumed office.

The NDA had promised in its election manifesto to debar Indian citizens of foreign origin from seeking top posts in the country, and leaders of the alliance, including Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, had vocally buttressed this point.

The defeat of the previous Vajpayee government by one vote in the Lok Sabha had apparently rankled in the NDA leadership, making it give priority for "getting even" with the Congress president.

"Yes, I think the legislation you are referring to is likely to be postponed for some time," said Sudip Bandopadhyay, Trinamul Congress MP and Banerjee's trusted lieutenant. "We feel that the NDA government has earned the overwhelming goodwill of the voters and we do not want to do anything that may leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth."

Bandopadhyay, however, denied any knowledge of the Banerjee-Vajpayee meeting on the matter.

It is understood that soon after the NDA government assumed power, Union Law and Justice Minister Ram Jethmalani and Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley were involved in drafting the controversial legislation, along with other legal luminaries in government. Significantly, at a recent press conference, Jethmalani said that while the government remains committed to the legislation, it is likely to take some time.

Meanwhile, Congress politicians are maintaining a studied disinterest in the government's moves, with most of them certain that any such legislation will be defeated.

Shyama Singh, Congress MP from Bikramganj, Bihar, sprang agitatedly to her chief's defence. "What nonsense is this!" she thundered. "The people have accepted Soniaji as a bahu (daughter-in-law) of not only the Nehru-Gandhi family but the entire country. She is an Indian citizen with all the rights of citizenship. She is a bona fide citizen of this country. Any effort by this government to curtail her rights will be strongly resented and resisted by the people. We in the Congress will fight to the finish on this question."

Former party spokesperson Girija Vyas, MP, also expressed contempt for the move. "It smacks of cowardice. How can you have any respect for parties that seek to curtail the rights of a genuine Indian citizen who is a bahu of the illustrious Nehru-Gandhi family?" she said. "I think that if this government has the cheek to bring forward such a legislation, it will be soundly defeated because even MPs in the BJP and its allies are opposed to such cowardly acts. The people will not tolerate it."

Vyas added that even if the proposal does somehow get passed in the Lok Sabha, it would never get past the Rajya Sabha, where the Congress has a strong presence and the NDA lacks a majority.

But two BJP MPs from Delhi said delay in the proposed legislation did not mean it had been shelved. They pointed out that the government had more pressing legislative business to attend to, like the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill over which there was protracted pandemonium in both Houses of Parliament today.

According to another senior BJP politician who is not a member of Parliament, the government's strategy would be to keep talk of the controversial legislation alive so that it can be kept dangling over the Congress president's head like the sword of Damocles and used as a bargaining chip.

The idea is to gain the co-operation of the Congress to pass vital legislation. With the government refusing to delete the late Rajiv Gandhi's name from the Bofors chargesheet, party spokesman Ajit Jogi has warned that the Congress will not co-operate with the government in Parliament because of the latter's "confrontationist approach".

The BJP politician also referred to the Congress backing down from the prime minister's offer of a comprehensive debate on the Bofors chargesheet and claimed that this was because the party does not want other vital documents relating to the deal to be brought out into the open. This was why Congress member Mani Shankar Aiyar had withdrawn his notice to Speaker G M C Balayogi in the Lok Sabha for a special discussion under Rule 193, he said.

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