— By FPJ Bureau | Mar 17, 2016 12:42 am
To justify Aadhar Bill as a Money Bill
NEW DELHI : Congress member Jairam Ramesh (62), who will be calling his innings in the Rajya Sabha in June, on Wednesday won kudos from the party members rushing to congratulate him in the House on the way he nailed a lie of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to justify the Aadhar Bill as a ‘Money Bill’ not requiring to be passed by the Upper House.
Jaitley has been silencing the Congress members objecting to the Aadhar Bill as Money Bill and making them defensive pointing out in both the Houses of Parliament that even the Juvenile Justice Bill in 1986 and later the African Development Bank Bill were passed during the Congress regimes as the Money Bill.
It was turn of Jairam while initiating the debate on the Aadhar Bill in the Rajya Sabha to nail Jaitley’s lie. He tabled a certificate secured from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat clarifying that none of the two Bills were the money bills.
Even before Jairam had finished, Jaitley intervened to justify his claim. Jairam, however, cut him short, saying he knows that Jaitley had sourced his information from the Lok Sabha website without cross-checking as that information was wrong. Jaitley agreed the source and said he checked the website just ‘four minutes past three’ and it is still there as he said about the Money Bill.
“You have deliberately misled the House. You should have verified information. The website of the Lok Sabha is wrong,” a triumphant Jairam said. Deputy chairman P J Kurien, however, corrected him not to accuse the minister of misleading the House when the information was procured from the official website.
Taunting the government not to call those opposing the Aadhar Bill as ‘anti-nationals,’ Jairam said he was for the Aadhar Bill but with amendments to correct the wrongs inserted by the government. He also succeeded in getting three amendments passed, each getting 76 votes in favour and against 64 twice and 65 once, causing much embarrassment to the government.
Jairam said it was not a money bill but he has to accept it so since the Lok Sabha Speaker has certified it. His amendments adopted by the Rajya Sabha, however, meant the changes required to go before the Lok Sabha to decide whether to accept or reject them.