The Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday will now take a decision on referring the Constitution Amendment Bill on the Goods and Services Tax to a Select Committee of the Upper House.
In the Rajya Sabha, the Congress remained adamant on its demand for Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari’s resignation, even as the Minister read out a statement saying the Comptroller and Auditor-General report on irregularities in a loan extended to the Purti group, which is linked to his family, was being “deliberately misinterpreted for political reasons.”
Except for adopting the amendments made by the Lok Sabha to the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013, to enable the ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh, the House did not conduct any business. The Constitution (122nd) Amendment Bill for GST, the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2014, and the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013, could not be taken up.
“The Congress is making an issue out of a non-issue in Mr. Gadkari’s matter. Nothing has been done [by him] as a Minister. So how can they ask for his resignation? And when the Minister was reading his statement, they should have listened with patience instead of adopting a shoot-and-scoot attitude,” Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said outside Parliament.
As soon as the Rajya Sabha met in the morning, Deputy Leader Anand Sharma sought the suspension of business. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mr. Gadkari had written to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha explaining his position and was ready to read out a statement. The government was ready for a discussion on corruption, he added.
