For the second time in the Winter Session of Parliament, former deputy prime minister and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani expressed anguish and concern over the way the session was a wash out with daily adjournments. So much so that he even told a few MPs, including Trinamool Congress MP (TMC) Idris Ali that he felt like resigning his Lok Sabha seat owing to his distress at the proceedings, adding that “Atalji (former prime minister Vajpayee) would have been very upset seeing this.”
After Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House for the day, before lunch, Mr Advani was seen speaking to Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani who gestured to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that the senior leader wanted to say something.
Mr Advani then urged Mr Singh that an all party meet should be called by the Speaker and a way found to end the grid lock in Parliament, that has barely conducted any business so far. Mr Singh nodded and slowly and as the House emptied out, Mr Advani was sitting by himself, at his seat. A couple of BJP MPs and Mr Ali walked up to the veteran leader. “By this behaviour neither the government nor the opposition wins, only Parliament loses,” he is reported to have said to them. “The only thing I want is that the House should run,” he said.
Government ministers denied that Mr Advani’s anguish was directed at them, suggesting that it was aimed at the Congress party. Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said “Everyone is saddened by how they (the Congress) are disrupting parliament. The whole country is sad due to this reason. Who has been ranting slogans and disrupting from the beginning is clear to everyone.”
The Opposition however took Mr Advani’s words as an indictment of the government’s handling of Parliament. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi tweeted Mr Advani’s remarks, presaging it with a comment, “thank you Advaniji for fighting for democratic values within your party.”
