New Delhi:
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath is known to have friends across the political spectrum and is known to put these connections to good use.
This morning, Mr Nath picked up the telephone to speak to his old friend and colleague from his Youth Congress days, N Chandrababu Naidu, who now heads the Telugu Desam Party or TDP.
The government is very keen that the bill gets passed tomorrow to mark Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary. The government seems to be pulling all stops in trying to ensure cooperation from its political rivals. Mr Nath tried to speak to leaders of the major political parties, asking for their help to run the house and pass the food bill.
"Mr Naidu and Mr Nath know each other very well. So if Mr Naidu had spoken to Mr Nath, he would have had to commit that TDP MPs will not disrupt the house tomorrow. Perhaps that's the reason why Mr Naidu did not come on the telephone line," says a senior UPA leader familiar with the negation process.
Ever since the monsoon session started, TDP's five MPs have been disrupting the house, over the creation of a separate Telangana. For almost two weeks now, frequent disruptions in the Lok Sabha, primarily by TDP members, have meant that the Food Security Bill is stuck.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar too called an all-party meeting this morning to discuss these disruptions. Sources say the meeting discussed several options including naming-and-shaming, asking the members to leave the house or vacate them from the house by using marshals. But Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, objected to forcibly vacating any member. In fact, she suggested to TDP leader Nama Nageswara Rao that his colleagues should protest outside the Gandhi statue within the Parliament premises.
Opinion was divided among the Left members. CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta, sources said, was upset that few MPs didn't allow the House to function and favoured "naming-and-shaming" practice.
But CPM's Basudev Acharia strongly objected; he said that TDP members should allow the house to function and frequent disruptions will only harm their cause for a united Andhra. He said they will lose the sympathy of other members as they have not allowed the functioning of the Lok Sabha.
In fact, statistics collated by PRS, a voluntary organisation that monitors Parliament's functioning, show that Lok Sabha has lost 85 per cent of its scheduled time of proceedings to disruptions so far.
Speaking to reporters after the meet, Mr Nath said the Speaker is empowered to take the final decision.
Tomorrow, all eyes will now be on the Speaker - whether she manages to persuade the TDP members to allow Parliament to function or will she allow the use of force.
This morning, Mr Nath picked up the telephone to speak to his old friend and colleague from his Youth Congress days, N Chandrababu Naidu, who now heads the Telugu Desam Party or TDP.
The government is very keen that the bill gets passed tomorrow to mark Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary. The government seems to be pulling all stops in trying to ensure cooperation from its political rivals. Mr Nath tried to speak to leaders of the major political parties, asking for their help to run the house and pass the food bill.
"Mr Naidu and Mr Nath know each other very well. So if Mr Naidu had spoken to Mr Nath, he would have had to commit that TDP MPs will not disrupt the house tomorrow. Perhaps that's the reason why Mr Naidu did not come on the telephone line," says a senior UPA leader familiar with the negation process.
Ever since the monsoon session started, TDP's five MPs have been disrupting the house, over the creation of a separate Telangana. For almost two weeks now, frequent disruptions in the Lok Sabha, primarily by TDP members, have meant that the Food Security Bill is stuck.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar too called an all-party meeting this morning to discuss these disruptions. Sources say the meeting discussed several options including naming-and-shaming, asking the members to leave the house or vacate them from the house by using marshals. But Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, objected to forcibly vacating any member. In fact, she suggested to TDP leader Nama Nageswara Rao that his colleagues should protest outside the Gandhi statue within the Parliament premises.
Opinion was divided among the Left members. CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta, sources said, was upset that few MPs didn't allow the House to function and favoured "naming-and-shaming" practice.
But CPM's Basudev Acharia strongly objected; he said that TDP members should allow the house to function and frequent disruptions will only harm their cause for a united Andhra. He said they will lose the sympathy of other members as they have not allowed the functioning of the Lok Sabha.
In fact, statistics collated by PRS, a voluntary organisation that monitors Parliament's functioning, show that Lok Sabha has lost 85 per cent of its scheduled time of proceedings to disruptions so far.
Speaking to reporters after the meet, Mr Nath said the Speaker is empowered to take the final decision.
Tomorrow, all eyes will now be on the Speaker - whether she manages to persuade the TDP members to allow Parliament to function or will she allow the use of force.
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