The BJP on Tuesday accused the Opposition of wilfully stalling Parliament with its “irresponsible” comments and “unfounded” allegations to mislead the country amid global recognition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. With the all-party meetings called by Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla producing no breakthrough to end the deadlock in Parliament, Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi accused opposition parties of repeatedly “insulting” Dhankhar.
The Congress hit back at the BJP, noting that Goyal, who is the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, got the ruling party MPs to prevent Leader of the Opposition in the House Kharge from speaking twice even after the Chairman had permitted him. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “How can the opposition’s demand for a JPC into the PM-linked Adani scam be linked to the BJP’s demand for an apology from Rahul Gandhi on totally baseless accusations?” The JPC is on a real, documented scam. The apology demand is a hoax being raised to divert attention from the Adani scam.”
After almost the entire opposition except for regional parties like the TDP, YSR Congress, and the BJD skipped the first meeting before noon, Dhankhar called another meeting in the afternoon. “It is our prime duty to run the proceedings of the House in an orderly manner,” Dhankhar told political parties.
Though some parties like the TMC and DMK attended the second meeting after the chairperson’s personal intervention, other opposition parties still kept away. This is a “great disrespect” to the chair, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi said.
The Chief Whip of the Congress and also the floor leader of the DMK called on the Chairman separately before the meeting and expressed their inability to attend the meeting convened by the Chairman, who indicated to these two leaders that this would not help the cause of democracy and his feelings be so conveyed to the leaders, the statement said. However, there was an absence of leaders from INC, AITC, DMK, AAP, BJD, RJD, CPI (M), JD (U), AIADMK, NCP, SP, SS, CPI, TRS, AGP, and others except for BJP, YSRCP, BJD, and TDP in the first meeting, it said.
With Opposition members protesting over the Adani issue from the first floor of the Parliament complex, Goyal said they were resorting to petty tactics to remain in the headlines as they lacked any solid arguments.
