New Delhi:
With Congress insisting that the resignation of Union minister Sushma Swaraj be part of tomorrow’s all-party meet to end logjam in Parliament, the BJP today hit back saying the opposition party has pushed itself “against the wall” by its demand and the honourable exit for it would be have a debate in the House on the Lalit Modi issue.
The ruling party also sought to drive a wedge in the opposition unity by claiming that while Congress is disrupting Parliamentary proceedings, other opposition parties are looking forward to a debate on important issues on the floor of the House.
Union Minister Niramala Sitharaman, who addressed a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, claimed that Congress has put itself in an “untenable position” and has “pushed itself against the wall” by demanding resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje over Lalit Modi controversy, and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan over Vyapam scam.
She said the “honourable exit” for the Congress would be to have a debate on the issue in Parliament.
Dubbing Congress as “confused”, Sitharaman said earlier Congress demanded a debate on the Lalit Modi issue. But when the government agreed to immediately “and to the shock of Congress”, they demanded that the resignations should come first and only then would they participate in a debate.
She said Parliament rules do not permit debate on state issues like Vyapam. “But there are other members, who want a debate on Kerala solar scam or the (Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister) Virbhadra Singh corruption issue...the rules can be changed,” she said.
Accusing Congress of adopting a “knee-jerk” strategy, she said the opposition party was adopting an “obstructionist” approach as it does not want Parliament to hold debates on important issues.
Sitharaman said important legislations like GST Bill and Whistleblowers’ Protection Bill are pending in Parliament but the Congress is disrupting proceedings resulting in the delay in their passage.
She said the proposal of GST first came up in 2006 by then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. “The rollout date was set for April, 2014...while land acquisition bill is being examined by a Joint Committee of Parliament, Congress leaders outside Parliament have stated that not even an inch of land will be allowed to be acquired...we yielded for a joint committee though several Congress CMs had demanded change in the 2013 law.”
She said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will have to take the blame “squarely” for the washout of the Monsoon session. She said a 2010 session was washed out over demands for a JPC on 2G scam.
“But then it was clear case of corruption as brought out by CAG. There were statements that Prime Minister was not kept in loop on 2G allocation. There were claims that he was told but no minutes of the meetings were maintained. In this case (Lalit Modi) now, there is no violation of law has happened,” she said.
She said the demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should intervene in the debate has little meaning as he has done so on a total of five occasions in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. He bring out hard facts, so they are afraid of the debate,” she claimed.
She said issues like terror attack in Gurdaspur could not be discussed due to logjam.
Responding to a question on BJP and the government’s stand on death penalty, she said a debate on the issue is “welcome” but refused to say anything further.
