Setting the tone for the upcoming Monsoon session, BJP on Sunday decided against being defensive over the controversies related to Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan and would brazen it out in Parliament which is set to be stormy over these issues.
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The Congress is demanding resignation of Swaraj and Raje over their links with former IPL chief Lalit Modi.
It also reiterated that neither Swaraj nor Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje will resign on the issue. The BJP chief met various party colleagues, including Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Piyush Goyal. “Parliament will run but government must allow discussion”, JD (U) President Sharad Yadav said when asked about the Congress stand.
The Prime Minister has also called a meeting of the senior leaders of the NDA at his residence on Monday to present a united front in Parliament.
Asked about the pending GST bill, Azad said that Congress has not given any dissent note and it was Congress’s bill and it is not against it.
He expressed hope that the best way the highest management of BJP has summoned chief ministers of each Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, resignation will probably be sought from the leaders.
“I am hopeful that when the Parliament session starts day after, Prime Minister will start by saying that those involved or those on whom charges have been levelled in Lalitgate as well as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister under whose leadership dozens of witnesses have been killed and thousands have got degrees in such a manner, he (PM) will announce their resignation”, he said.
In the case of the Vyapam scam, the BJP’s argument would be that Chouhan himself had taken the lead in ordering a probe while in the Lalit Modi case, the party’s line of defence was that there was no illegality involved.
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There is acknowledgement in the BJP that the spate of allegations against its leaders has hurt the government, but there were apprehensions that succumbing to opposition pressure would only further complicate matters for it. While the government is reconciled to disruption in Parliament amidst a standoff with the Opposition, it would have to be seen who blinks first in the war of nerves. The government, which has a comfortable majority in Lok Sabha, is in a minority in Rajya Sabha.
