All-party meet inconclusive; monsoon session heads for washout

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 3

The troubled monsoon session of Parliament is set for a washout with the government and the opposition Congress failing to reach an agreement in the all-party meeting held today to resolve the ongoing deadlock in the two Houses.

While the Congress represented by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in the meeting stuck to the party’s position on the resignation of three BJP leaders (External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Chouhan) for their role in Lalit Modi and Vyapam rows, the government refused to yield to these demands.

Toeing the “no discussion without resignation” line showed this morning by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party leaders reminded the BJP of how they had between 2010 and 2013 secured the resignations of five Congress leaders when the Congress was ruling at the Centre.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley argued in vain in the meeting that the BJP’s demands were rooted either in CAG revelations, or an FIR or cognizance by courts and were not made in a vacuum. 

The Congress, however, made it clear it would not budge from its demands.

“All I can say is that the government wants to be the king and wants the Opposition to behave like subjects. I am afraid that’s not how democracy functions. In a democracy there is give and take. The government hasn’t taken into account our concerns for action against ministers in the ‘Lalitgate’ and Vyapam scams. The conclusion of the meeting was nil,” Azad told the Tribune after the meeting openly hinting at washout of session, which has seen nine wasted sittings since its commencement on July 21.

The government, meanwhile, appeared reconciled to the loss of session, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu saying the opposition Congress didn’t budge even when told that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could intervene in the IPL and Vyapam discussions once the debate started.

“The Congress is in no mood to relent. We told them our leaders have done no illegality. We also told them they were being unfair on Sushma Swaraj,” Naidu said, indicating “no dilution” in government stand either.

The larger Opposition represented in the meeting by TMC, BJD, AIADMK, NCP, SP and BSP, meanwhile, urged the two principal parties to resolve matters between themselves and said they wanted discussions.

“We have said that many issues of public importance need to be raised. But the Congress and BJP must resolve their matters first,” TMC’s Sudeep Bandopadhyay said.

At the meeting, BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab even suggested that the session be adjourned sine die if no business is to be conducted—an option, the government said, it was not considering.

“We have categorically said in the meeting that the government must hold back channel talks with the Congress to run the House or adjourn it sine die. We appreciate the government’s stand that their leaders have not committed the kind of wrongs the former Congress ministers committed and hence the two issues are not comparable. But it is for the Congress and BJP to resolve this deadlock,” Mahtab said.

The CPM joined ranks with the Congress, with Sitaram Yechury seeking resignations of the BJP”s ‘tainted’ trio. The rest of the parties too refused to stand in the way of Congress’ demands and left it to the government to make peace with the recalcitrant principal Opposition party.