The Government, on Sunday, seemed resigned to the likelihood of no business in the remaining days of the monsoon session of Parliament as the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Congress leader Anand Sharma traded fresh charges.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s appeal to the Opposition with a hint that the Prime Minister may make an intervention was lost with his colleague and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman simultaneously asserting that the Congress was “afraid” of the prospect. “The Prime Minister can intervene if the debate warrants intervention,” Naidu said on the eve of an all-party meeting which the Congress is disinclined to attend.
“Are you afraid that whenever the Prime Minister speaks, he comes up with hard hitting facts? Are your afraid whenever he talks, it appeals to the people of this country?” said Nirmala Sitharaman. Simultaneously, the Finance Minister’s explanatory note on the Goods and Services Act titled “Dissent or Disruption – The Congress Party’s Position on GST” seemed designed to heckle the principal Opposition party. He suggested that the Congress is disrupting the House because it has not been able to digest its defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
“The Congress Party and its leader may be upset with the Government for political reasons. They may be upset with the electorate for the 2014 verdict. The Congress Party should accept and seriously introspect after having ruled the country for the longest period of time, that negativism hurts the country. Should its obstructionist tendencies inflict an economic injury on the country?” the Finance Minister asked.
The Congress’s response was predictably shrill. “The unwarranted, uncharitable and provocative statement made by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the BJP accusing the Congress of disruption makes it abundantly clear that the Government is neither serious nor sincere in breaking the stalemate for Parliament to function.
PM blamed The blame of Parliament not functioning lies squarely with the Prime Minister for his arrogance and obduracy,” said Anand Sharma
“Arun Jaitley and the BJP are advised not to give patronising sermons to the Congress but to collectively reflect and apologise for their own conduct while in Opposition. It is the responsibility of the Congress and the Opposition to unmask the duplicity of the Prime Minister and the BJP. It is our duty to expose their hypocrisy, double speak and double standards on propriety, probity and accountability. The Congress part is resolute and duty bound to ensure accountability for acts of commission, omission and abuse of office and gross impropriety,” he added.