With half-a-dozen Union Ministers speaking out against the Congress on Sunday, the government seems to have queered the pitch ahead of Monday’s all-party meeting to break the deadlock in Parliament. An angry Congress shot back, warning that unless the government makes the necessary overtures, Monday’s meeting will yield nothing.
In an exclusive interview, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told The Hindu that a debate on the floor of the House would expose the Congress. “The Congress has jumped into protests in Parliament without planning an exit route. It is caught in a situation of its own making,” he said, adding that other parties did not favour disruptions.
Union Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman went a step further, saying the Congress was “only pretending to ask for a debate and actually running from it.”
Throughout the day, similar statements from other Ministers against the Congress resulted in agitating not just the principal Opposition party but also several other smaller parties. Adding fuel to the fire, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had done nothing wrong.
What angered the Congress particularly was Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Facebook post picking holes in the party’s position on the goods and services tax, and asking, “Should the obstructionism of the Congress party inflict economic injury on the country?”
Though the AIADMK and the two Left parties had also submitted dissent notes to the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha, which examined the GST Bill, Mr. Jaitley only dwelt on issues raised by the Congress in his Facebook post.
Reacting to Mr. Jaitley’s post, Congress leader Anand Sharma told The Hindu : “His statement is provocative and has confirmed our understanding that the government is not constructive in its engagement with the Opposition. It is ironical that the BJP has accused the Congress of being opposed to Bills that will help the country when their legislative agenda is barebones. The Opposition is duty-bound to expose the government, unmask its duplicity and force accountability. It would be better that the Prime Minister recognises the Opposition with respect and not expect them to be petitioners in his court.”
Raja: Government unlikely to concede anything
As the Opposition saw it, the government had gone on an offensive instead of being accommodative on the eve of the all-party meeting, meant to break the Parliament deadlock.
“It means they are not going to concede anything,” said CPI leader D. Raja.
“By ruling out [External Affairs Minister] Ms. Sushma Swaraj’s resignation and making remarks like ‘no-work-no-pay’ and accusing the Opposition of being ‘mentally bankrupt’, the government has set the agenda for the meeting. Some of the Opposition parties suggested a boycott, but then we have decided to go and speak our minds,” said Janata Dal (U) leader K.C. Tyagi.
In fact, the “no-work-no-pay” suggestion of Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Mahesh Sharma drew a lot of flak.
Many MPs said this smacked of a lack of understanding of what parliamentarians do.
“We attend committee meetings, I have two on Monday,’’ said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
Elsewhere, Union Minister of State for Environment Prakash Javadekar — while blaming the Congress for the deadlock — was quoted as stating that “there is no reason why Parliament should stand. It wastes crores of rupees everyday. This is public money.”
