Prospect of an immediate end to the parliamentary logjam appeared bleak on Saturday with both the government and the Congress sticking to their guns ahead of an all-party meeting on Monday.
After the Congress insisted that its demand of action against BJP leaders should be on the meeting’s agenda, the government appeared unlikely to oblige the opposition with Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad repeating its earlier stand that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was ready to make a statement and state issues cannot be discussed in Parliament.
The main opposition party has demanded that Ms. Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje resign for their alleged role in Lalit Modi controversy and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan quit over the Vyapam scam.
“Sushma ji has been ready to make a statement in Parliament from the first day (of monsoon session). As far Vyapam issue is concerned, Congress may forget it but the country must know that issues of states are not debated in Parliament,” Mr. Prasad told reporters at a briefing.
BJP sources said the government had done all it could to end the logjam with Prime Minister Narendra Modi also reaching out to opposition leaders.
Mr. Prasad’s comments came after the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the proposed all-party meeting should be based on what action is taken against Ms. Swaraj, Ms. Raje and Mr. Chouhan.
“It (the three BJP leaders’ fate) should be on the agenda for the discussions,” said Mr. Azad, emphasising that the Congress was keen on the passage of important Bills in the current session of Parliament, which has faced disruptions for the last two weeks.
The Congress had on Friday made it clear that its participation in an all-party meeting to break the deadlock depended on a “tangible” proposal from the Prime Minister on the Opposition’s demands.
