Sangma says he won’t let foreign origin issue die out

Sangma says he won’t let foreign origin issue die out
NEERJA CHOWDHURY

NEW DELHI, JAN 21: The issue of debarring people of foreign origin from holding constitutional positions, which had been put on the backburner, came to the fore again as Purno A. Sangma, member of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC), asserted again that he would not allow it to die down.

‘‘As long as I am alive, it will not be allowed to become a dead issue,’’ the former Lok Sabha Speaker told The Indian Express. ‘‘It will have to be taken up for discussion by the NCRWC. Either the Commission accepts it or it rejects it. I will insist on voting inside. Let a democratic process be followed.’’

The NCRWC has been known to be sharply divided on the question though it has not yet taken it up formally for discussion. The issue has not figured in any way at any of the five meetings the Commission has held since its inception 11 months ago, nor has it assigned any think tank or acedemic to prepare a discussion paper on the subject which then can be released for a public debate, before the Commission takes a final position on it.

At its first meeting itself, the Commission had zeroed in on ten subjects, assigning various agencies to prepare discussion papers on them. They included strengthening institutions of parliamentary democracy with an emphasis on political stability, electoral reforms, Union-state relations, decentralisation and devolution, and enlargement of fundamental rights. The Commission released seven discussion papers last week.

The Commission’s one-year-term comes to an end on February 21. Sangma, who had parted company with Sonia Gandhi on the issue that she could not become the Prime Minister, had submitted a formal paper on the foreign origin issue to the Commission last year itself and it is now before the NCRWC.

Even if the Commission were to vote out the idea, he would take it up in Parliament, Sangma said. If nothing else, he would bring a private member’s Bill and force voting on the issue. The issue, he said, had a bearing on the national pride, identity, the country’s security and its intelligence system.