Minister of Parliamentary affairs, Ananth Kumar appealed to the Opposition to allow Parliament to function, and asked for co-operation in clearing Bills like the Disability and the Maternity Bill in the interest of the public.
“The Opposition is behaving in an unreasonable and irrational manner, and Parliament cannot be conducted properly in this irrational way,” he said.
‘Ready for discussion’
“The government is ready for debate on demonetisation, Prime Minister Modi will intervene, and the reply to the debate will be done by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Barring the Trinamool and the Congress, there have been notices by many political parties for discussion on demonetisation under rule 193 that does not entail voting.
The Congress, by insisting on such protests is not allowing these parties too, to debate. The matter is now in the hands of the honourable Speaker [Sumitra Mahajan], but I want to ask the Opposition whether there is even a question of voting on measures undertaken to fight black marketing, terrorism and fake currency? They must specify exactly what they are asking for when they ask for voting on the debate on demonetisation,” he said.
He added that there was “no question” of an apology from Prime Minister Modi for his alleged remarks on those opposing demonetisation as being corrupt themselves. “Please listen to the recording of speech, he has not mentioned any Opposition party or leader,” said Mr. Kumar. He said that the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill was cleared without discussion because of this attitude of the Opposition.
