PM Modi attacks Congress, says 'will observe fast to expose their crimes'

NEW DELHI: Launching a counter-attack on Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused the grand old party of not letting the country to move forward. "The people who couldn't gain power in 2014, don't want the country to move forward," he told ANI.

Accusing the Opposition further, PM Modi said, "They didn't let Parliament work for a single day. They killed democracy and we will observe fast to bring their crime in front of the world. I will observe fast and at the same time I will continue my work."

The Prime Minister's reaction comes a day after Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had called PM Modi's planned fast - to be observed on April 12 - a farce of a fast. Taking a dig at the party, the Congress spokesperson had said that the fast should be to seek an apology from the children whose lives have been jeopardised due to the CBSE and SSC scams. 

Slamming the Modi government, he had said that they must also apologise to the Dalits by observing the fast. "The fast should be to seek an apology from the children whose lives have been jeopardised due to the CBSE and SSC scams.They should tender an apology to the Dalits," Surjewala had added.

On Tuesday, PM Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah said they will observe a day-long fast on April 12, Thursday. This came as a protest against the disruptions that had broken out during the budget session of Parliament.

On April 6, the second leg of the Budget Session, which had commenced on January 29, concluded with the Rajya Sabha losing over 121 hours. The Upper House had 30 sittings where the sittings were held for just 44 hours.

Along with the Prime Minister and the party chief, several BJP MPs will also join the fast observation. They are namely - Ravishankar Prasad, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Giriraj Singh, Mahesh Sharma, Rajnath Singh, Rajnath Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan, JP Nadda, Prakash Javdekar, Radhamohan Singh, Piyush Goyal, Suresh Prabhu, Maneka Gandhi, Meenakshi Lekhi, Thawerchand Gehlot, Nirmala Sitaraman and Smriti Irani.

There was no Question Hour in the Upper House for 27 days due to the uproar causing repeated adjournments, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said.

Issues like special status to Andhra Pradesh, bank scams, demand for Cauvery water management board, vandalising of statues, review of the recent Supreme Court order on SC/ST Act and law and order situation in Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh were some of the issues on which the House saw the uproar. The House lost nearly three- fourths of its time to disruptions and adjournments.

Upset by the loss of time caused due to disruptions, Naidu had called the session 'an eminently forgettable one'. He had also urged the members not to make the Rajya Sabha a "clog in the wheel" of progress, before adjourning the proceedings of the Budget Session sine die.

Due to the disruptions, the House could not debate the important Finance Bill 2018 but passed the payment of gratuity law without debate.