Headlines
BJP-Congress in all-out war, parliament in stalemate
New Delhi, July 22
The BJP and the Congress
were on Wednesday locked in an all-out war over tit-for-tat corruption
charges as continuing uproar over the demand for the resignations of
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Madhya Pradesh and
Rajasthan chief ministers again crippled parliament.
Both the Lok
Sabha and the Rajya Sabha witnessed turmoil for the second day as the
Congress and other opposition parties joined hands to target the
government, which hit back aggressively -- both in parliament and
outside.
The government flatly ruled out the resignations of
Sushma Swaraj, who has been linked to former IPL chief Lalit Modi, and
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje -- also for her links with
Lalit Modi -- and her Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan,
who is facing the heat in the Vyapam recruitment scandal.
As the
impasse in parliament raged, the Bharatiya Janata Party opened a new
front outside, accusing Uttarakhand Chief Minister and Congress leader
Harish Rawat and a close aide of corruption vis-a-vis liquor barons --
and demanded Rawat's resignation.
Rawat denied the charges but
the Congress said an FIR has been registered, the aide asked to go, and a
time-bound inquiry would follow.
Later, the BJP raised the issue
of a chargesheet filed against former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister
P.K. Thungon of the Congress over a 1998 corruption case.
There was ruckus in both houses of parliament all through Wednesday.
In the Lok Sabha, opposition members raised slogans against the Narendra Modi government.
Congress
leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and M. Veerappa Moily sought to move an
adjournment motion on Lalit Modi, which Speaker Sumitra Mahajan
rejected.
Opposition members, including those of the Congress and
the Left, trooped near the speaker's podium wearing black bands and
carrying placards. One placard in Hindi urged Prime Minister Narendra
Modi to break his "silence" on Lalit Modi and the Vyapam scam.
An
exasperated Mahajan first adjourned the house till noon, then again
till 2 p.m. Later, as trouble continued, Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai
adjourned the Lok Sabha for the day.
The Rajya Sabha too
witnessed ruckus throughout the day stalling business as the opposition
pressed for the resignations of Sushma Swaraj, Raje and Chouhan.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said his party wanted "action", not just a discussion. The opposition appeared united.
Sushma
Swaraj set the tone for the government's aggressive pitch in the
morning when she tweeted that a Congress leader had pressed her to give a
diplomatic passport to a Congress leader Santosh Bagrodia, a former
central minister.
Challenging the BJP that state issues cannot be
discussed in parliament, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati told the
Rajya Sabha that Vyapam was a national issue.
Janata Dal-United
leader Sharad Yadav said he and BJP leader L.K. Advani had quit
following hawala charges, suggesting that Sushma Swaraj must follow
suit.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said there can't be a debate without the ministers concerned resigning.
Rajya
Sabha leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley accused the opposition
of not wanting a debate and only being interested in making noise. He
said the whole country wanted to hear Sushma Swaraj in parliament.
"Pomposity
without fact is not acceptable... I dare you to start a discussion. You
don't have any facts, so you want to make noise," he said.