REFUGEE

Chemical and Fertilizer minister M.K. Alagiri, son of Tamil Nadu chief minister M.Karunanidhi seems to have become a major embarrassment for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government! Alagiri, who skipped almost all the question hour sessions during the budget sessions apparently because he could not reply in English or Hindi, was in trouble today as well. The minister’s absence in the house to reply to a calling attention motion on ‘shortage of fertilizers’ irked the opposition in the Lok Sabha.

As minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers, Srikant Jena stood up to reply, but an angry Basudeb Acharya, (CPM leader) who raised the matter, insisted that the cabinet minister should come to the house. He was joined by the BJP’s Anant Kumar and some Samajwadi Party MPs and some other opposition members. However, Alagiri did not come to the house (It was not clear if he was in the national capital). Although the issue has united the otherwise-divided-opposition, Alagiri also had some supporters.

His party colleague T.R. Baalu vociferously protested the opposition stand and he was soon joined by A. Raja. Despite the rumors about their not-so-good-relations, Raja, who was sitting in the middle benches shifted himself to the front seat and defended his party colleague. Interestingly, the MPs belonging to the Trinamool Congress were more aggressive in their defense of the Tamil Nadu minister. According to Left MPs, the TMC MPs supported Alagiri only because the matter was raised by a CPM MP. (It could also be because their leader (Mamata Banerjee) is another MP known for her frequent absences from parliament sessions!)

Finally, it was Speaker Meira Kumar, who saved Alagiri. The speaker has ruled that since it was the collective responsibility of the cabinet, Jena was “competent” enough to respond on the issue. The speaker’s strict ruling may have saved the DMK leader for the time being, but Congress leaders wonder how they are going to deal with the issue during the one-month-long winter session and the years ahead!

Alagiri’s request to allow him to answer questions in Tamil was earlier been turned down by the Lok Sabha secretariat on the grounds that it would cause “practical difficulties”. Quoting the rules, the Lok Sabha secretary general P.D.T. Achary had said: “Files containing the answers to questions are written in English and Hindi. So the ministers will have to reply either in English or in Hindi.