NEW DELHI, Aug 10: Stunned by a series of setbacks in floor management in the Parliament last week, Prime Minister I K Gujral has summoned an unscheduled meeting of the Union Cabinet tomorrow morning to devise a strategy aimed at smooth passage of pending Bills of urgent importance.

The Bill related to the election of President and Vice President which was defeated in the Rajya Sabha on Friday due to utter failure of the government, is to be introduced in the Lok Sabha tomorrow. It will be later re-introduced in the Rajya Sabha in consultation with the Opposition.

Another agenda for the Union Cabinet tomorrow is to clear the Bill relating to the salaries and allowances of Members of Parliament. The Bill has been gathering dust although MPs belonging to the BJP, UF and the Congress have been pressing the successive governments to clear it.

The Antulay Committee report had dealt with the subject at length and felt that the MPs should be given better perks and privileges so that they are able to discharge their duties effectively. But the governments refrained from doing so to avoid public criticism. The Gujral government is now set to woo the MPs in the wake of one debacle after the other in Parliament. Though no party is keen to pull down the government, the happenings in the Rajya Sabha on Friday clearly reflected that individual MPs have to be placated rather than depending on leaders of their respective parties.

Gujral is also disturbed to learn that despite cautioning by the Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah, his Cabinet colleagues did not take things seriously.

She had indicated that a calling attention motion on the wages of workers in Public Sector Undertakings moved by Gurudas Das Gupta (Communist Party of India) could be taken up on Friday instead of the Election of President and Vice President Amendment Bill in view of the absence of the Congress MPs due to the All India Congress Committee's plenary session. But none of the three ministers heading the Finance, Labour and Industries were willing to take it up on the ground that the subject did not fall under their ministries. The Prime Minister was duly informed by the Deputy Chairperson's office.

As if this was not enough, Minister of State for Home Affairs Makbool Dar had to cut a sorry figure when he failed to reply to specific queries of the MPs about the provisions of the Private Security Agencies Bill he had moved earlier. Although he too had been told that he should not move the Bill in view of absence of ruling party MPs, he did not care.

Obviously, the BJP MPs who were waiting since morning for this opportunity, seized it. Dar failed to answer why clause G and F of the bill contain same provision and what he meant by personal security. Dar was left with no option but to get the Bill deferred although the Opposition was pressing for the withdrawal.

It was surprising that while the 14-party government was insisting on moving one Bill after the other, it made no attempt to mobilise even 40 MPs in the Rajya Sabha on Friday to out-number the BJP MPs.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.