Headlines
No resignations over Lalit Modi, Vyapam scam: Government
New Delhi, July 22
The Narendra Modi
government on Wednesday reasserted that union minister Sushma Swaraj and
two BJP chief ministers will not resign over the Lalit Modi controversy
and Vyapam scam and termed opposition allegations on the issues as
"baseless".
"We have decided to give a befitting reply to the
misinformation campaign on these issues and BJP parliamentarians have
been asked to strongly counter the opposition," Minister of State for
Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters after a meeting
of the BJP parliamentary party.
Naqvi said the opposition was attacking the NDA government "out of desperation as it had no issues to raise against the Centre".
The
opposition, particularly the Congress, was not interested in holding
discussions (in parliament) and only wanted to disrupt the proceedings
of both the Houses of parliament, Naqvi said.
Pointing out that
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke at the meeting, Naqvi said, "The
prime minister told the BJP parliamentarians that they should be proud
of his government's work for the betterment of the poor. He also asked
the parliamentarians to take all government initiatives for the
country's development to the people."
Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley said Sushma Swaraj gave her views at the parliamentary party
meeting and satisfied all party parliamentarians through her logic.
"We want the whole country to hear her logic (in parliament)," Jaitley told mediapersons.
Taking
a dig at the Congress, Jaitley said, "Yesterday (Tuesday), the
opposition was ready to discuss the matter but today they have started
demanding an inquiry. Inquiry is done only when some legal provisions
are violated as was done in the 2G spectrum case."
He said the opposition was lacking in facts and that's the reason it was shying away from a parliamentary discussion.
BJP
president Amit Shah also addressed the meeting and appealed to the
party's members of parliament to educate the people about the work done
by the government in the last one year, sources said.