SP now accuses Left of 'bulldozing' Venugopal Bill

Tue, May 13 10:15 AM

The chill in the Samajwadi Party-Left relationship is getting deeper. Just days after the Supreme Court scrapped the amendment to the AIIMS law as "unconstitutional" and an example of "naked discrimination" to get director P Venugopal out, Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh has accused the Left of bulldozing that Bill through in the same manner as the Women's Reservation Bill.

Normally, a Bill is referred to a standing committee but the Venugopal Bill wasn't, said Singh, who was the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.

Speaking to The Indian Express on Monday, Singh said he had "reservations" on the Bill because the standing committee had earlier "unanimously" supported Venugopal. The committee then included A K Antony (now Defence Minister) who had, in fact, moved the resolution backing the AIIMS director, said Singh.

"The Left parties, DMK, and the Congress all supported the sacking of Venugopal through that Bill that's why they did not refer the bill to the committee," Singh said. "I raised the voice of protest against that legislative bulldozing, without referring it to the committee. I even made my objection known to Rajya Sabha Chairperson Hamid Ansari, and also to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi. I raised my voice of protest because the committee in its earlier reports had not suggested sacking of Venugopal. But I was persuaded against it (resigning) by CPM's Brinda Karat."

Singh's remarks come barely a day after the Samajwadi Party snubbed the Left on the nuclear deal saying that all along, its interpretation of the deal was based on what the Left had said and it was willing to "consider" it if the UPA shared "new facts" about the agreement.

While both the SP and the Left parties have collaborated with each other on many political issues until very recently - including price rise - the way the Left and the UPA got together to push the Women's Bill in the Rajya Sabha has angered the SP.

"I have twice witnessed such legislative bulldozing in this Parliament," Singh said. "One, the Bill aimed at sacking Dr Venugopal from the post of AIIMS director and, second, recently, the backdoor introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill." In both cases, the Left parties backed the UPA, he said.

It is the manner in which the Women's Bill was introduced that's angered the SP which admits that it's the "non-communication" with the Congress that has made it paper its cracks with the Left.

"Because of the lacklustre attitude and non-communication with the UPA and, in particular, the Congress, where they did not have any kind of formal or informal communication with either the SP or the UNPA, we have always over-ruled the issue of minor differences with the Left in order to formulate a wider political synergy and national political alternative beyond BJP and Congress," said Singh.

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