Parliament session will not be cut short, says Venkaiah

“We are planning to introduce several important bills on insurance, SEBI and others”

Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu has said there is no proposal to cut short the Parliament session and ridiculed the Opposition’s observation that the government has no business to transact.

“We have enough business and are planning to introduce several important bills on insurance, SEBI and others. We are also working on the judicial appointments bill and the Opposition’s views are baseless,” the Minister said at a press conference here on Sunday.

The Parliament will resume its business after four days’ break, Mr. Naidu noted.

No pressure on anyone

Taking strong exception to Congress leader Anand Sharma’s remarks over Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi’s opinion on giving the Leader of the Opposition status to the Congress Floor Leader in Lok Sabha “is not worth the paper on which it’s written,” said the Parliamentary Affairs Minister the NDA government did not believe in pressuring anybody.

“Perhaps, the Congress leaders are talking keeping in mind their own experience of influencing the Chair. Our government will abide by whatever decision the Speaker takes on the issue,” Mr. Naidu stated.

Scoring self goals

Based on the Congress strength in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad was named Leader of the Opposition there and there was no issue at all, he explained adding that no party was given such a status twice in the past by the Congress government.

Turning to the Congress, the Union Minister said it was scoring self goals on several issues and it was acting in haste, instead of maturity having been in power for the longest period.

“It has messed up everything, including economy, administration and external debt, and trying to overlook the conventions started by it,” Mr. Naidu said adding that it was the Congress that was responsible for price rise, railway fare hike, civil services exam issue, transfer of Polavaram submergence mandals to Andhra Pradesh among others.

On the Maharashtra Sadan incident, the Union Minister asked the Opposition parties not to give a communal colour to it.

Isolated incident

Stating that whatever had happened was wrong and should not have taken place, Mr. Naidu said it was an isolated incident and should not be flared up in the larger interests of the country.

The Maharashtra government had already ordered an inquiry into the incident, he said.