First, the strength of the Congress is just 44, while the BJP had 110-plus members when it was in the opposition during the last Lok Sabha. The Congress party is saying that while it wants the GST, it does not want the present Bill. “The BJP is intoxicated with power, so much that no medicine can cure it”, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told the media here. Though the BJP has the mandate of the people, yet the performance of this government compels one to gather the impression that it might be a good opposition. The Opposition, with its no-debate approach, should also understand the importance of parliamentary sessions for development.
Advertisement
Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal hit out at the Congress, asserting that the government will pass the GST bill at any cost in one of the press conferences at the national capital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reluctance to attend Parliament’s business advisory meetings has led to other parties, more so the Congress party in whittling down its own seniority of participation.
“Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has not given any clean chit (to chief engineer Yadav Singh)”.
The government had earlier rejected the Congress party’s demand for the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over the Lalit Modi controversy.
He said that strong resentment is being voiced by all sections of the people across the country over persistent disruption of Parliament and hoped that this would make those who disrupted the Monsoon session wiser. “I was requesting them not to show placards and come to the well of the Houses, though they right to register their protest but ot this way”, she said.
The ruling NDA also decided to hold public rallies in parliamentary constituencies of Congress and Left MPs to highlight their “disruptive” practice in parliament.
The Monsoon Session has already seen an unprecedented suspension for five days of 25 Congress MPs for unruly behaviour by the Speaker.
Advertisement
The total washout of Parliament’s monsoon session, with no major legislation being passed, is an indication of the degradation in the discourse of Indian politics (“Session ends, but acrimony lingers”, August. 14).
