Govt willing to walk extra mile to accommodate Oppn: Naidu

New Delhi, August 5

Calling External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj an “asset”, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said the government was “willing to walk the extra mile” to accommodate the Opposition but could not accept its “unreasonable demands”.

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress, Naidu said the Opposition party is “really rattled” by the successes of the Narendra Modi-led government and was therefore blocking the proceedings of Parliament to stop the progress of the country.

Dismissing Congress’s demand for resignations of Swaraj and Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Chief Ministers Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chauhan over the Lalit Modi and Vyapam related issues, Naidu said while Swaraj is an “asset”, the others are outstanding performers.

“Sushma Swaraj is a great asset to the nation. There is a no allegation at all; still they want her to resign,” he said.

The Congress was putting forth a “ridiculous” argument that during their regime six ministers had been forced to resign, so they would not give up, he said, adding that UPA ministers had corruption charges against them and even some arrests had been made.

He also noted that Swaraj was willing to answer all questions but the Congress did not want a discussion.

Defending Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s move to suspend Opposition party members from the House for causing disruptions, Naidu said when the Congress was in power such steps had been taken several times, including in years like 1989, when 63 MPs were suspended and also in 2013.

Countering criticism that the “Gujarat model” was being imposed in Parliament, Naidu asked, “Was there any Gujarat model in 1989?”

“They should not give any sermons. It is a case of ‘sau chuhe khake billi haj ko chali (after committing many sins, they are pretending to be holy)’,” he said.

Naidu further said that some leaders were saying that an emergency like situation was being imposed and in a way were criticising the Emergency which had been ushered in by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and several leaders jailed. “Do they accept that also?” he asked.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister said that people are “restive and distressed” as they want laws made and important issues like flood situation, farmers suicides, abductions in Libya etc discussed and protesting outside Parliament would not serve any purpose.

Naidu who was speaking at an event organised by the BJP youth wing Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), said there is a need to counter the “disinformation campaign” of the Congress.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister was effusive in praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he is “God’s gift to the nation” and under his leadership, the nation had achieved many successes like the Indo-Bangla accord, the Naga peace deal while countries like Canada and Australia were willing to provide uranium to India.

Modi is “3D”, Naidu said, explaining that the ‘three Ds’ stood for “decisive, dynamic and development”.

He said that in 1916 a great soul from Gujarat, Mahatama Gandhi had spoken of clean India, and referring to Modi, added that now another person from Gujarat had taken the Swacch Bharat initiative.

He also criticised certain objectionable comments made by Congress leader Gurudas Kamat against Smriti Irani, who had reportedly remarked that she used to mop floors.

Naidu said such remarks were made because of the arrogance of Congress leaders, who have stayed in power for very long and said that Congress is still struggling to come to terms with its defeat.

“What is wrong if an ordinary person becomes the HRD minister?” he asked while adding that the beauty of democracy is that a ‘chai wala’ can become Prime Minister and newspaper vendor can go on to be the President.

Lauding the role played by late former President A P J Abdul Kalam, Naidu said that on the day of his burial, “some friends in media were glorifying Yakub Memon”.

He said it was difficult how there could be sympathy for a traitor and added that the country should be united and firm against terrorism. A terrorist, he said, has no religion.

Rejecting contentions that those from a particluar community faced capital punishment more, Naidu said that in the recent past there had been 36 such cases and barring Maqbool Bhat, Afzal Guru, Ajmal Kasab and Memon, others belonged to other communities.

He also added that the point of the view of the victims should also be kept in the mind.

President of the BJYM Anurag Thakur too spoke at the event where a programme “panch kranti” which aims to involve the party’s youth wing in areas where government has also taken initiatives, was launched.

Thakur said BJP’s youth wing had played a glorious role in the fight against corruption. He said the youth workers would work to take the message of Narendra Modi to the masses. He also outlined the details of ‘Panch kranti’ programme saying that in four months lakhs of youth would be motivated and contacted.

BJP General Secretary Muralidhar Rao, who also spoke at the event said that a roadmap should be charted to channelise the energy of the youth workers for states where the party is in power and also where it is not in power.

He said the organisation also needs to keep in mind the important elections that are scheduled in 2016 and 2017 in this regard. — PTI