03-22-2006, 10:20 AM
How to save Queen Sonia?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>To stop office-of-profit axe, UPA gets ordinance</b>
R VENKATARAMANPosted online: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 0000 hrsÂ
NEW DELHI, MARCH 21
<b>Violating Parliamentary norms and to ensure that Congress president Sonia Gandhi, along with several prominent MPs, including Karan Singh and Somnath Chatterjee, escape the Jaya Bachchan-type disqualification because they hold an âoffice of profit,â the Congress-led UPA government is bringing in an ordinance to change the law. </b>The draft of the ordinance, finalised today, amends the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959 and exempts a fresh batch of offices, including that of the National Advisory Council chairman (Sonia Gandhi), chairman of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (Karan Singh), state development boards, textile boards etc.
The draft ordinance amends Section 3 of the PPDA and will be subsequently introduced as a Bill in the current session as Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill.
What is bound to raise political controversy is the timing. Article 123 of the Constitution empowers the President to promulgate any ordinance any time âexcept when both Houses of Parliament are in session.â The Governmentâs fig leaf is that Parliament is in recessâbreak from March 23 to May 9âalthough this is the recess in one session, not between two sessions.
Sources said there is a hurry to push the ordinance through given the fact that after Bachchanâs disqualification for her job as chairperson of the UP film council, complaints against 44 prominent MPs are with the President.
<b>These include Sonia Gandhi (chairman of National Advisory Council and several Govt-aided trusts), Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee (chairman, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation), Karan Singh (chairman, Indian Council of Cultural Relations), Union Minister T Subbirami Reddy (chairman, Tirupati trust). The complaint against Amar Singh</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>To stop office-of-profit axe, UPA gets ordinance</b>
R VENKATARAMANPosted online: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 0000 hrsÂ
NEW DELHI, MARCH 21
<b>Violating Parliamentary norms and to ensure that Congress president Sonia Gandhi, along with several prominent MPs, including Karan Singh and Somnath Chatterjee, escape the Jaya Bachchan-type disqualification because they hold an âoffice of profit,â the Congress-led UPA government is bringing in an ordinance to change the law. </b>The draft of the ordinance, finalised today, amends the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959 and exempts a fresh batch of offices, including that of the National Advisory Council chairman (Sonia Gandhi), chairman of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (Karan Singh), state development boards, textile boards etc.
The draft ordinance amends Section 3 of the PPDA and will be subsequently introduced as a Bill in the current session as Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill.
What is bound to raise political controversy is the timing. Article 123 of the Constitution empowers the President to promulgate any ordinance any time âexcept when both Houses of Parliament are in session.â The Governmentâs fig leaf is that Parliament is in recessâbreak from March 23 to May 9âalthough this is the recess in one session, not between two sessions.
Sources said there is a hurry to push the ordinance through given the fact that after Bachchanâs disqualification for her job as chairperson of the UP film council, complaints against 44 prominent MPs are with the President.
<b>These include Sonia Gandhi (chairman of National Advisory Council and several Govt-aided trusts), Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee (chairman, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation), Karan Singh (chairman, Indian Council of Cultural Relations), Union Minister T Subbirami Reddy (chairman, Tirupati trust). The complaint against Amar Singh</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->