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Editorial

JS special committee and BNP's participation

PM's statement reassuring
23 July 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
Amidst the general sense of disappointment at the fact that the BNP is not represented in the Special JS Committee on constitution amendment, the PM's assurances, among other things, that the Committee can be recast anytime to include BNP representatives, is heartening. No committee, much less one that is entrusted with the task of reviewing the constitution and recommending appropriate changes, can afford to be without the main opposition party. And the government should not spare any effort to make the committee inclusive; it must take the opposition on board in order to lend credibility and acceptability to the recommendations it makes. But merely articulation of intent by the PM is not enough. Necessary steps must be taken to ensure that the idea is materialised, and without delay. And to that end we suggest that the AL, to start with, respond to the queries of the BNP which it had sought in reply to the invitation to join the JS Committee. Only yesterday we had commented in this very column that the process followed by the ruling party may raise some doubts about its motives given the apparent hurry with which the formulation of the list, and its adoption in the parliament, was completed. The last thing that the AL can afford is to kick up controversy on a very sensitive issue, which the matter of constitutional amendment is. As for the BNP it will do well to keep in mind that they cannot make the issue of clarifications an excuse to not participate in the JS Committee. They cannot forget that they represent almost one third of the voters and the issue is so vital that not to have their views represented in the discourse, is quite unacceptable. For the BNP to find ulterior motives on the part of the AL may be misplaced, since the process stems from a ruling of the High Court that makes amendments to the constitution imperative. We feel that the PM's statement on the concluding day of the budget session, that the exercise is not aimed at banning any particular political party or effect changes that might hurt the religious sensitivities of some people, are assurances that should be enough to ally any reservations of the BNP. On the matter of creating doubts, we feel that people in position of responsibility should abjure making casual remarks that only help create misgivings in people's mind, as was done at the media briefing by the said JS committee. One of its members, at the end of the briefing, very casually remarked that the matter of the caretaker government would also come into their reckoning. We wonder whether at all CTG is an issue. Only the lacunae in the CTG provisions, like the one that allowed its 90-day tenure limit to be extended to two years, may be taken up. Any other move in respect of the CTG is likely to invite severe public opposition.

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