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Parliament stalemate continues : NDA to boycott rest of the session |
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There was no let up last week in the war of words between the Manmohan Singh
government and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance over the question of the Opposition participating in the proceedings of Parliament. The NDA relented only for one day during the week to attend the Lok Sabha when the Finance Minister was to reply to the Budget debate. But there was a desertion from the NDA ranks, when the Telugu Desam Party, which is an NDA ally, ended the boycott and started taking part in the Parliament proceedings.
PM accuses NDA of double-talk
On the day the TDP broke ranks with the NDA to return to Parliament, the Prime Minister attacked the BJP tactic of boycotting Parliament to put pressure on the government. While renewing his appeal to the Opposition to attend the Budget session, Manmohan Singh rejected the NDA charge that he and his government are not making enough efforts to break the deadlock. Using strong language he described as “absolutely false” the NDA effort to blame him and his government for the disruption of Parliament as well as the BJP charge that his government had tried to prevent the Pakistan President from calling on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He said the country should know that there is a world of difference between what the leaders of the BJP-led NDA say and what they do.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament, Manmohan Singh said “It is not for want of trying on the part of the government or myself. As soon as the NDA announced its decision to boycott the session, I had called up the leader of Opposition L.K. Advani, NDA chairman Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh. I requested them, let us end this chapter, and all issues can be discussed on the floor of the House”. The Prime Minister dubbed as “totally false” the accusation that his government had attempted to prevail upon Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf during his recent visit not to see NDA chairperson Vajpayee. “This is totally false. Now, this is the length to which the opposition goes. I think the country should know that between the two-what they say and what they do - there is a world of difference”. He also took serious note of the “type of language” that the NDA had used against him in the memorandum they submitted to President A.P. J. Abdul Kalam.
NDA sharpens attack on Government
The NDA, on the other hand, intensified its attack on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and rejected Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s appeal to reconsider its boycott of Parliament. On Wednesday, May 4, the NDA announced that it will go in for a total boycott of both Houses of Parliament as well as Parliamentary committees till the end of the Budget session on May 13. The BJP charge was that the government’s attitude makes it clear that the Opposition is not wanted. BJP President and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani briefing the media said that the government attitude left them with no other alternative. Advani said they were waiting for a call from the Prime minister inviting them for talks. But what followed were statements from Congress general secretary Ambika Soni and PM’s Press Adviser Sanjay Baru that Manmohan Singh would not appeal to the Opposition again to return to Parliament.
The meeting of the NDA leaders, with Vajpayee in the chair, took exception to Soni’s remark that the NDA should “apologise” and return to the House, and to Baru’s calling the Opposition’s attitude “childish”. Jaswant Singh said that he had suggested to the Prime Minister that he could invite Vajpayee and Advani and that the two sides should desist from talking against each other. “I am loath to mention all this but it was disappointing that what followed was an official of the government calling the Opposition childish.”
CPI(M) criticises Vajpayee for Parliament boycott
The CPI(M) has accused former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of hypocrisy for the NDA continuing its boycott of Parliament. An editorial in the party organ the Peoples Democracy says that the Opposition has created an unprecedented situation. It said that never before has the Opposition stalled Parliament so frequently and held democracy itself hostage. Accusing Vajpayee of leading the way, the editorial states: “Not long ago as the Prime Minister, he would harangue the country through pracharak sermons on how the opposition should behave in a responsible manner. He indeed heads a party with a difference - a party sans any principle or value.” The CPI(M) argued that there was no merit in the BJP’s case for disrupting Parliament even when the Speaker has assured them of fair play and the PM has promised that they were free to raise any issue.
The Left party has pointed out that the BJP is obviously clamouring for the ouster of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The CPI(M) said the practice of having charge sheeted minister was legalised by Vajpayee himself. “In a classic case of pot calling the kettle black, the BJP is shamelessly filibustering Parliamentary democracy”.
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