New Delhi: The government-opposition
standoff in Parliament is expected to worsen in coming
days with Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday rejecting the
JPC demand on the 2G spectrum issue and the NDA threatening
to take to streets.
An indication to this effect was available with the
Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj declaring that the NDA
will be taking this fight against corruption to the
people. "We will be hitting the roads soon," Swaraj told
reporters after a dharna of NDA in Parliament on the issue.
Swaraj`s statement came close on the heels of the
Congress Parliamentary Party meeting in which Gandhi launched
a blistering attack against BJP and asked partymen to expose
its "double standards and doublespeak" on the issue of
corruption.
Gandhi did not refer directly to the opposition
demand for a JPC but made it abundantly clear that the party
thinks that the steps taken by the government in 2G issue were
sufficient and that PAC was a competent body to examine the
issue.
The NDA is also holding a rally against corruption in
the national capital on July 22, which will be followed by
countrywide agitations. Top NDA leaders will be holding
deliberations tomorrow to finalize their strategy.
However, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda
attacked the BJP and favoured mid-term Lok Sabha polls if the
government was not able to ensure smoothly functioning of
Parliament.
Slamming the BJP, he said that the Karnataka land scam
was "bigger than 2G" and accused the main opposition of
scuttling any discussion on the land scam by stalling the
entire winter session of Parliament.
A section of NDA also felt that BJP`s failure to take
action against Yeddyurppa as well as recent comments by RSS
chief Mohan Bhagwat on the Ayodhya issue have put off some
other non-NDA parties, who had earlier decided to join the
rally against corruption, which was named Opposition Rally so
that it is not treated as "only BJP affair".
The Left parties are also expected to hold
consultations with like-minded non-Congress, non-BJP parties
like TDP, BJD, AIADMK and RLD over the next course of action.
CPI National Secretary D Raja said the National
Council of his party would be meeting in Hyderabad from
December 14 to 16 and consultations were possible then or
soon after the meeting.
The Congress plenary is also scheduled here from
December 18 which is likely to chalk out the future course of
action to meet the Opposition challenge. This is the first
plenary after the Congress-led UPA came to power for the
second time in 2009. Gandhi also made a veiled attack on the opposition`s plan to summon the Prime Minister in case the government had yielded to the demand for a JPC saying nothing should be done
that will "denigrate" the institution of the Prime Minister.
As the month-long session was adjourned sine die, a
bitter Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal at a
press conference took on the opposition squarely, saying BJP`s
"unholy alliance" with the Left was to destabilise the
government.
"My charge against BJP is that they could not have got
courage to move a no confidence motion. They had the ulterior
motive of paralysing the government," he shot back when asked
to react to BJP veteran L K Advani`s charge that government
was threatening opposition with a mid-term poll.
The Winter Session of Parliament today ended without
transacting any substantial business, going down in
Parliamentary history as the only session virtually washed out
due to standoff between the government and Opposition over the
2G issue.
Parliament could function barely for a few hours
during the 23 sittings which began on November 9, as the
united Opposition daily forced adjournments within minutes of
the House assembling.
Meanwhile,Bansal said the CCPA has recommended to the
President proroguing of both the Houses.
PTI
