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Congress refuses to ease up on CRC

George Iype in New Delhi

Just two days after the government named the full Constitution Review Committee, its terms of reference have created a heated controversy as most of the panel's 11 members have begun talking in different voices on the changes they plan to recommend in the statute.

Opposition parties allege that some CRC members want to include their personal agendas in the review and so are airing politically motivated proposals, thanks to the lack of clear and strict terms of reference.

Three members -- Nationalist Congress Party general secretary Purno Sangma, Mahatma Gandhi's grand-daughter Sumitra Kulkarni and journalist Cyrus R Irani -- have announced that their priority will be to raise the issue of barring people of foreign origin from holding high constitutional offices.

Jurist members of the CRC like Justice (retd) B P Jeevan Reddy, Justice (retd) R S Sarkaria and former attorney general K Parasaran are insisting that the committee review the anti-defection law, Article 356, devolution of financial powers to the states, provision of more laws for the uplift of the scheduled castes and tribes, and special privileges for members of Parliament and the state legislatures.

Two other legal experts in the panel, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee and Justice K Punnaiah, have advocated sweeping changes in the fundamental rights by enlarging their scope. They insist that since important fundamental rights like the right to education and privacy are not included in the Constitution, these glaring shortcomings will come up for review.

But the insistence from Sangma, Kulkarni and Irani that the review panel will take up the issue of foreign-born persons holding the office of President, prime minister and chief justice of the Supreme Court is likely to pit the CRC members against one another.

The CRC chairman, Chief Justice (retd) M N Venkatachaliah, has already said that making a constitutional change to bar people foreign origin from holding important offices is not a priority for the panel.

Snubbing members raising controversial proposals and issues even before the panel had had its first sitting, Venkatachaliah said there are more pressing issues before the committee. "Let us first of all sit down and discuss what needs to be taken up and what is not to be taken up for review," he said.

But he added that while the members are free to air their views, it will be the committee's endeavour to ensure that it does not interfere with the basic structure or features of the Constitution.

But opposition leaders say some CRC members are trying to bring personal and political agendas into the panel's review powers because its terms of reference are vague. "It is for the first time that a government has set up a high-powered committee without any effective terms of reference," senior Congress politician Pranab Mukherjee told rediff.com

According to the terms of reference, the CRC will examine existing provisions of the Constitution within the framework of parliamentary democracy and without interfering with its basic structure or features.

"Some of the panel members are BJP sympathisers and Congress bashers whose only ambition is to use the Constitution Review Committee to continue their political battle against our party president, Sonia Gandhi," Mukherjee said.

He said Law Minister Ram Jethmalani had gone on record to say that there would be no politician on the committee. "Then how come a biased politician like Sangma has been included?" he remarked.

While the government has clarified that Sangma has been included as a "distinguished citizen" of the North-east and a former speaker of the Lok Sabha, Congress sources said the party would fight his influence through former ambassador in Washington Abid Hussain.

Hussain, a former bureaucrat-diplomat who is considered close to Sonia Gandhi, has also been included in the CRC. The Congress leadership is said to have already asked him to thwart any efforts by Sangma or others in the committee to bring in the recommendation to ban persons of foreign origin from holding constitutional office in India.

While the review panel has thus got off to a controversial start, the heat is only likely to increase when the CRC finally does make its recommendations to amend the Constitution.

EARLIER REPORTS:
PMO rejects charges against Constitution review panel
Sangma to raise foreign origins issue
Sangma, Sorabjee on Constitution review panel
DMK chief opposes change in Constitution

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