A worker carries coal to load onto a truck at a coal depot in Guwahati.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj called up
leaders of the opposition parties individually and informed them of the
BJP’s stand. She called off a formal interaction with them proposed for
Monday.
Hopes of an end to the Opposition-Congress stand-off on the CAG report
on coal vanished on Sunday with the BJP reiterating that it would not
allow Parliament to function until its demand for the resignation of
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is met.
Mindful of the concerns among the other opposition parties, including
the Left, over its tactics of stalling the House, the BJP reached out to
them and explained why it was sticking to its demand.
Amid indications that some of the opposition parties were preparing to
convince the BJP to allow Dr. Singh to explain his position, Leader of
the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley issued a statement
explaining why his party thought that a debate and an explanation by
Prime Minister in Parliament would be futile.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj
called up leaders of the opposition parties individually and informed
them of the BJP’s stand. She called off a formal interaction with them
proposed for Monday.
CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta said: “Sushma Swaraj told us that her party
cannot allow Parliament to function with the Prime Minister at the helm
of affairs even if it means stretching [the protest] to the whole of the
monsoon session,” scheduled to end on September 8.
Without even getting into the Congress challenge to bring a
no-confidence motion, a belligerent Jaitley said: “Suggestions that the
issue should be debated only in Parliament will put the lid on one of
the greatest scandals in Indian history. We, in the Opposition, are not
interested in the issue merely being talked out through a one-day
debate.”
“The Prime Minister’s Office is a sacred institution. It has to be
judged by standards much harsher than those which would apply to
Ministers like Shri A. Raja. If the process of allocation [of coal
blocks] by the Prime Minister as a Coal Minister smacks of
arbitrariness, it shakes our national conscience. The onus is now on the
Prime Minister to accept the responsibility for what has happened.”
Conceding that debate was an essential ingredient of Parliament, the BJP
leader said that when parliamentary institutions were subverted and
accountability was not permitted, the polity must invent new tactics so
that the principle of accountability was not sacrificed. “Debate and
accountability must coexist.”
Mr. Jaitley contended that but for the Opposition insistence in December
2010 on a JPC on 2G spectrum, which cost an entire winter session of
Parliament, the country would not have benefited.
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