Headlines
Logjam cripples parliament business for third day
New Delhi, July 23
The logjam between the
opposition and the Modi government over the resignations of a union
minister and two chief ministers crippled functioning of parliament for
the third straight day on Thursday.
The government upped its ante
by firing yet another salvo at the Congress, accusing Himachal Pradesh
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of receiving bribe in the garb of
unsecured loan.
The ruling BJP also moved a privilege motion in
the Lok Sabha against Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president
Sonia Gandhi, over his comments in a Facebook post.
The Lok
Sabha virtually turned into an arena for placard battles between the
Congress and the BJP. Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha,
which was disrupted repeatedly as the opposition continued to press for
the resignations of the ministers concerned.
Union Minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad told media persons outside parliament that Virbhadra
Singh received crores of rupees as unsecured loan.
"Venture
Energy Technology Private Limited, whose project was revived by
Virbhadra Singh ... and after a while, the owner of the company gave
Rs.1.5 crore as unsecured loan to the chief minister's wife and Rs.2.4
crore to the chief minister," he said.
Taking a dig, Prasad said
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi "who has been speaking so much
these days" should comment on this as well.
"It was nothing but bribery in the name of unsecured loan as the chief minister helped the company," Prasad alleged.
The Congress hit back, accusing the BJP of taking "revenge instead of action".
"Instead
of taking resignations of their leaders, they (BJP) are raising
non-issues and small issues to divert (public) attention," Congress
leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters.
As soon as the Lok Sabha
met on Thursday morning, members from the Congress and other parties
were up on their feet, demanding action from the government on their
demand for the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj
and the chief ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Several
Congress members moved near the Speaker's podium, carrying placards
targeted at Swaraj and raising questions over the "silence" of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi.
In the ruckus, BJP's Prahlad Joshi spoke
on his privilege motion against Vadra though his voice was mostly
inaudible. Later, Joshi told IANS he had moved the privilege motion
against Vadra.
Vadra, whose land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan
are being probed, had talked about "diversion politics" and "so called
leaders" in his Facebook post on July 21, the first day of the monsoon
session.
In the upper house, the government, which is in a
minority, was equally aggressive, and insisted on a debate on the
allegations against Swaraj's links with former Indian Premier League
chief Lalit Modi.
The opposition wanted Sushma Swaraj to resign
first. Leader of the House, Arun Jaitley, pointed out that the notice
given by Congress leader Anand Sharma did not mention the demand for
resignation.
As soon the house assembled for the day, members
from the Congress and other opposition parties were on their feet. They
refused to listen to the government's repeated appeals for a debate.
Meanwhile,
Prime Minister Modi exchanged pleasantries with his predecessor
Manmohan Singh as well as other opposition leaders shortly after the
Rajya Sabha was adjourned post-noon.