K.V. Seetharamaiah
The opposition parties are finding opportunity in difficulty in the foiled Parliamentary attack on 13/12/2023, exactly 22 years after the first attack. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to the opposition parties to avoid discussion and allow the government to probe the incident. But the opposition parties are eager to corner the government on this issue. The ruckus created by the opposition parties has prompted the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha to suspend 92 MPs. In 1989, 63 Members of Lok Sabha were suspended on March 15 over tabling of the report of the Justice Thakkar Committee that inquired into the assassination of Indira Gandhi. National Front government under the Prime Ministership of VP. Singh was in power at that time. Many of the present day opposition parties were the constituents of the National Front government. The point not to be missed is that the DNA of all the political parties is the same. What the present government has been doing was done by the parties opposed to the present government in the past. What the present day opposition parties are doing now was done by the constituents of the present government also. Opposition parties are taking this opportunity to say that the democracy has been throttled and the voice of the opposition parties has been stifled. The Speaker has lamented for politicizing the issue by the opposition parties. Rahul Gandhi says that the attack is the fall-out of unemployment. Is he covertly justifying the attack? A thief has a reason to steal; a murderer has a reason to murder; some corrupt persons may need money to meet their needs if not greeds. Nothing can justify the criminal activities. If the unemployment is the reason for intrusion, was there no unemployment during the Congress regime? Were there no criminal activities then? Devanand Jha, father of Lalit Jha, the master mind of security breach has corroborated the view of Rahul Gandhi. The opposition MPs are insisting for the suspension of Pratap Sihma. The Union Home ministry has already ordered a probe into the incident. The panel is headed by CRPF DG Anish Dayal Singh with members from other security agencies. The opposition parties who were silent when CBI enquiry was withdrawn by the Karnataka government in the disproportionate assets case of D.K. Shivakumar have no moral rights to seek the suspension of the MP. The probe has been ordered to uncover the truth only. The silence of Prathap Sihma, MP who has allegedly issued pass to the two men – D. Manoranjan from Mysuru, Karnataka and Sagar Sharma from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh to enter the Parliament House is intriguing. Unless he breaks the silence, the needle of suspicion points at him even though he does not have any mala fide intention in issuing the pass to them. People are entitled to know the reaction of Prathap Sihma on an issue that has rattled the nation. It is said that the entrants have to undergo interception at 5 levels. After the December 2001 attack, security has been reportedly tightened. It is astonishing that at all the levels of security checks, it was not detected that the two men were in possession of smoke canisters. This lapse is unpardonable. Besides these two who gained entry into the House, there were a man identified as Amol Shinde and a woman identified as Neelam protesting with similar cans that emitted colour smoke with slogans ‘won’t allow dictatorship and Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Jai Bheem. If the opposition parties have the satisfaction that the attack happened when BJP was in power in 2001, the ruling parties do not hesitate to say that the attack was sponsored by the opposition parties to bring bad name to the government. This is the time for all irrespective of their political affiliations to unite in the interest of the nation. This should not be viewed as the time for all the opposition parties to unite against the government.
