BJP, Left parties are in collusion: Congress

The Congress on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left Parties of “collusion and complicity” in their joint efforts to destabilise the secular forces in the country.

“First, the PAC [Public Accounts Committee] has been converted into a BJP-Left Parties forum instead of a joint parliamentary committee,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told journalists, adding, “Secondly, the unholy haste shown by the BJP chairman in doing his party's bidding before April 30 is being actively supported by the Left.”

Lashing out at the BJP and the Left, Mr. Singhvi said the BJP was backing the Left parties in the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal — they were doing this by fighting a proxy war at the national level to “save the sinking ship” of the Left in the State.

Referring to the PAC, the Congress spokesperson said Dr. Joshi had thrown all norms of discussion and debate to the winds with the “active connivance and unconditional support” of the Left.

Congress sources later said Dr Joshi's inordinate haste to “catch the Prime Minister by the neck” in the report had boomeranged — now the Committee had not been able to indict even a peon. If the PAC chairman had acted impartially and methodically, he said, the report could have proved embarrassing for the government. These sources added that if the Opposition parties continued to behave in this fashion, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G scam would meet the same fate.

Purulia issue

On the Purulia issue, Mr. Singhvi said the Opposition wants the government to answer questions and charges made by two “anti-national elements” after 16 years. He pointed out that CPI leader Inderjit Gupta was the Union Home Minister from 1996-1998 after the Purulia arms-drop case of 1995 and asked what the Left had done to address the issue at that time.

He also pointed out that without the recommendation of the former Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, an anti-national arms dropper like Peter Bleach could not have been given a Presidential pardon and released.