Headlines
Role reversal for Congress-BJP as parliament faceoff continues
New Delhi, July 24
The ongoing battle in
parliament appeared to be witnessing a role reversal of sorts between
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress with both the
parties blaming each other for the stalemate on Friday.
Similar
to the logjam witnessed during the Congress-led United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government's days when many parliamentary sessions were
washed out, no major business could be transacted in the first four days
of the monsoon session.
Not just the opposition, the government also appeared equally aggressive, countering din with din, and slogans with slogans.
On
Friday, the Modi government, staring at a completely washed out monsoon
session, blamed the Congress for being an irresponsible opposition.
The Congress was quick to remind the BJP how it disrupted parliament for weeks in the 15th Lok Sabha.
Congress
leader Anand Sharma accused the BJP and especially Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj of "suffering a
collective loss of memory".
Sharma told IANS that the BJP should
remember how it had disrupted parliament over various demands during
its 10 years in opposition.
"They spoilt many sessions of parliament when they were in opposition. The accusations against us are baseless," Sharma said.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, denied this.
"There
is no similarity to when we protested and the way they are protesting.
We had clear demands. We wanted JPC (referring to the 2010 winter
session when BJP pressed for a JPC on the 2G scam), we wanted
discussions. One wonders what they (Congress) want," Naqvi told IANS.
Renuka
Chowdhary, Congress MP from the Rajya Sabha, said: "There is no
similarity... we don't want to disrupt parliament. We have given the
government a choice. Our demand for resignation to ensure fair probe is
natural justice."
Communist Party of India leader D. Raja,
however, said: "One cannot help but draw a parallel... but the issues
and situation are different. Government is here giving tit for tat
instead of listening to the opposition. They are also creating a ruckus,
parliament can't function this way".
As compared to the last few
parliament sessions of the UPA, the National Democratic Alliance
government had seen better productivity in its first year in office as
far as legislative business was concerned, according to statistics.
"The
BJP was an irresponsible opposition. If in the last one year of the NDA
government, any bill was passed, then the credit goes to the Congress,"
Anand Sharma said.
Reiterating the demand for the resignations
of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the chief ministers of
Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury
said the yardstick was set by the BJP when it was in opposition.
"When
there are charges of corruption, why shouldn't the minister demit
office? These people should demit office or they are to be removed from
office. That was the yardstick when BJP was sitting there as the
opposition," he said.
"Leader of the House (Arun Jaitley) today
was the Leader of the Opposition (earlier)and the Leader of the
Opposition (Ghulam Nabi Azad) today was the minister in the then
government," he said.
During the UPA rule, disruptions over
issues like the allocation of 2G spectrum, coal blocks, FDI in retail,
demand for Telangana, and the Commonwealth Games had marred the 15th Lok
Sabha, making it the least productive session in 50 years.
The two houses on average worked for only 61 percent of the allotted time.
The
newly elected NDA government has had a good track record of running
parliament so far, with the budget session this year being the most
productive in recent years, according to PRS Legislative Research.
During
the budget session, Lok Sabha's working hours compared to scheduled
hours took the productivity to 123 percent, while Rajya Sabha had 101
percent productivity.