Accusing the Opposition of not allowing the Government to put forth its views in Parliament on Anna Hazare’s detention, two senior ministers today said such an attitude was “not fair” in a parliamentary system.
Talking to reporters separately, Leader of the Lok Sabha and the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, said the Opposition created a pandemonium in Parliament forcing its adjournment.
“Now-a-days, unfortunately, we are noticing that some of the Opposition leaders are making their observations on a particular discussion and thereafter, when the questions are replied by the Government, they are creating pandemonium and force an adjournment of the House. This is not fair in parliamentary practice,” he said.
His views were echoed by Mr Bansal, who said it was an “old habit” of the Opposition of not allowing the Government to speak.
“They are making the system irrelevant,” he said.
Mr Pranab Mukherjee said Mr Bansal tried his best to impress upon the leaders of the Opposition parties to let BJP leader Ms Sushma Swaraj make her observation in the Question Hour and thereafter the Home Minister be allowed to make his observation.
“The Home Minister wanted to make the statement, we wanted to tell this country that it is legitimate right of every individual, group to have protest but at the same time there are certain rules, certain laws. If police considers that particular action may lead to law and order problem, police can impose certain conditions,” he explained.
Mr Pranab Mukherjee said while in a free country like India everybody had a right protest, there was a “method” to be adopted.
He said once police had imposed restrictions, it was for the parties concerned to decide in consultation with police and administration to take further action.
In reply to a question, Mr Bansal said Congress members were not disrupting the proceedings but were merely displaying copies of questions to be asked from the Government as they wanted the Question Hour to take place.
Congress MP, Mr Rashid Alvi, accused the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Ms Sushma Swaraj, of “deciding” every morning whether or not to allow the House to run that day.
“This is very painful and unfortunate. The House should run, there should be debate inside the House. But the BJP’s attitude is unconstitutional. They are not allowing both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to function”, Mr Alvi said.
He also termed BJP member Mr Rudra Narayan Pani’s rushing to the Well in Rajya Sabha as “condemnable” and said the Opposition was “not willing to apologise for it. This is condemnable”.