ENGLISH SHORTHAND DICTATION-190

 

Sir, I stand here to gladly support the 126^th Constitution Amendment Bill, 2021. With full support, I make an appeal to you. I am feeling a little sad, but I am sure the appeal will work. Yesterday, there was a seven-hour discussion in the Lok Sabha. Today, we have had two hours’ discussion with about six more hours to go. Sir, we are missing somebody in the Parliament. We are really missing our hon. Prime Minister. This is an important Constitutional Amendment Bill. I am sure my appeal will not fall on deaf ears and he will come here to listen to us. Otherwise, in the Olympic spirit, we can have a cut-out too. But that would not be very¹²⁰ parliamentary. There is no doubt our hon. Prime Minister is a great believer in the Olympic Games. There is an¹⁴⁰ Olympic God named Poseidon. Poseidon is linked today to army, media, ministers, activists, judiciary, and Opposition members. How is that, Sir?¹⁶⁰ That is because Poseidon's son is called Pegasus. So maybe tomorrow or day after tomorrow, if you want to extend this discussion, we would like to come and discuss this on the floor of the House. Sir, I am also very happy today because I am the second speaker from the Opposition. Now it may be a coincidence that the first speaker from the Opposition was my friend and colleague who is a Member of Parliament from West Bengal.²⁴⁰ He is a Member of Parliament sent here by the Members of Legislative Assembly of the Congress Party and the Trinamool Congress Party. It is not a coincidence. I was not going to talk about elections. I was going to²⁸⁰ talk straight into the OBC Bill. But the previous speaker told me that he is going to win some election in 2022. So, I mildly want to remind him that with nine per cent OBCs in Bengal, thirty per cent Scheduled³²⁰ Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and fifty per cent women in Bengal, we actually do not want to talk about elections, because we do not talk, we do. But it seems that the nightmare is continuing and our friends here³⁶⁰ cannot get away from Bengal. We are discussing a Constitution Amendment Bill today. It was not just an election between my party's manifesto and another party's manifesto. Our interpretation is that it was an election where a manifesto was against the Constitution and the Constitution won. Sir, I am not a trained lawyer. I would not always use pretty words. ⁴²⁰ Neither can I bear the pain nor can I express myself. I am actually referring to the legislation. What is this Government's track record on poor legislation? Mistakes, oversights, callousness, etc. were the words of my fellow Member of Parliament from Bengal. I would use the word 'incompetence'. Let me give you examples. The first one is this. Like⁴⁸⁰ every other party,  Trinamool Congress Party's dissent note had stated that the amendment to the Constitution through this Bill undermines the role of State Governments. It is all there in the dissent note much before you went to the Supreme Court. But, Sir, I want to present today as to how deep this incompetence of legislation is because we are talking on a Constitution Amendment Bill. They passed the GST Bill and we all supported it. We warned them on⁵⁶⁰ implementation. This is our real record. Sir, 376 changes were made to GST in ten months. My request to the Government is to take our advice. I am giving suggestions.

I gave you one example of GST. The hon. Home Minister⁶⁰⁰ was here a few months ago or one year ago. On the floor of the House, the hon. Home Minister talked about the Citizenship Amendment Act. Sir, I will give you one more example of Farm Bills. Again, what did you do? ⁶⁴⁰ You did not listen. So, you have a history. The basic hypothesis is that there is fault one, fault two, etc. You correct the fault and then you congratulate yourselves. That is the basic thing which my fellow Member of Parliament from Bengal and I are trying to say. Now, I come to the core issues⁷⁰⁰ of federalism. It is good that in this Bill, you have done the correction. We have studied the last 98 Bills⁷²⁰ passed in Parliament. Out of the 98 Bills passed, 29 are core anti-federal Bills. An amount of Rs. seven lakh crore promised to the States is not released. Now, you are making all these promises quoting federalism. But you have not given the States that amount of Rs. seven lakh crore. It is an assault on federalism. Sir, let me explain to them. The basic hypothesis of the Supreme Court on OBCs has been made by the opening batsman. We discussed our speeches⁸⁰⁰ yesterday. That is the coordination we have in the Opposition. What is the problem if we do that?

Sir, I come to one interesting point. It is again about States. In 2014, the States were⁸⁴⁰ spending 46 per cent. Now, the States are spending 65 per cent on programmes they undertake. Sir, why is there no caste-based census? It is an obvious question; it is a rhetoric question. You see the BJP has one answer to all the problems and it is that the real reason for all this is that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru did this, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru approved a wrong draft, etc. Look at the 126th Amendment which Parliament has passed. The point I am trying to make here is that the smaller you become, the more the majoritarianism attacks you. We welcomed the 126^th Amendment. It is because you took the SC and ST reservation up by ten years. We requested you to⁹⁶⁰ take it up by 30 years. But you did a cheap stunt. You took away the reservation of the⁹⁸⁰ Anglo-Indian community of 40,000 people in the ten Assemblies and in the Parliament. What did you tell them? You told them that the census mentioned 200 people. Now, you know why this Government does not want to discuss the son of Poseidon. It is because if we start discussing it, then lots of skeletons would come out of the cupboard. I want to make two points. One is on the ground implementation. Look carefully at some of your States, especially, Uttar Pradesh. Sir, 48 per cent of OBC students are dropping out of IITs and IIMs. Please do not give them¹⁰⁸⁰ just the numbers. Please ensure that they are implemented. In the last 22 days, 35 Bills have been passed, and everyone is patting themselves on their back. How do we summarize what has happened in the last two years in India? ¹¹²⁰ I want to leave this with you. I reiterate that we fully support this Constitution Amendment.

Sir, today is a historic day and my party is fully supporting the Constitution Amendment Bill that has come up. Sir, I don't know whether due to the flaws involved in the 102nd Constitution Amendment Bill that was brought earlier or due to the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Supreme Court, the Bill was nullified and the power of the State Government was¹²⁰⁰ taken away. We are very happy that the hon. Minister in his Statement of Objects and Reasons has stated that this Amendment has been brought with a view to strengthen the federal structure of this country. In most of the Bills, directly or indirectly, the powers of the States are being taken away by the Central Government. We are happy that through¹²⁶⁰ this Bill, the States are getting back their power and authority which was once taken away. Likewise, there have been legislations where¹²⁸⁰ the powers of the States were taken away. If those could also be restored and assigned back to the State Government by the Centre, it would make us happy. Sir, Mahatma Gandhi in his deliberations on Swaraj said that his main focus was always aimed at financial equality. He used to say that when we are born equal, we have the right to equal opportunity, and based on that, the framers of our Constitution had made the provision of reservation in the Constitution of India. Sir, I would refer to two issues only as I am left with limited time. Moreover, another member from my party will also analyze and deliberate on the given subject from legal perspective. ¹⁴⁰⁰ Many State Governments have devised their own reservation policies on various occasions for the people belonging to the OBCs. But all these policies have come under controversies and all have been referred to High Courts and the Supreme Court and in most¹⁴⁴⁰ of the cases, the respective courts have rejected them. The main reason for rejecting them was the non-availability of any statistics or census data pertaining to OBCs in India. The first caste-based census was carried out during the British rule in 1932 and since then it has never been done again. The issues which my friend from the Congress Party has highlighted in his speech never got implemented. Therefore, our party proposes that in the forthcoming census there should be at least a provision of caste-based census. If the caste-based census is carried out, then the reasons based on which the courts have been nullifying the cases earlier would be at least taken care of and we will get rid of that. I wish to put forward two suggestions. First, the ceiling may be increased beyond 50 per cent and secondly, the forthcoming census should be conducted based on caste consideration so that in future any such legislation will be¹⁶⁰⁰ based on a correct data and courts cannot reject them.