Cong to attend all-party meet if ‘tainted trio’ issue on table

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 1

Ahead of the all-party meeting scheduled for Monday to find ways of breaking the ongoing parliament logjam, the Congress has said it would attend only if its demands on the resignations of three top BJP leaders are put on the discussion table.

“Our attendance at the all-party meeting will depend on whether the government is willing to discuss the text of motions we have been moving on the floor of the two Houses for two weeks now. The text of these motions is – action taken against the CM of Madhya Pradesh in the Vyapam scam; action taken in the Lalit Modi row against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia. If these motions are on the agenda for discussions, we will go for the meeting,” Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will on Monday signal her strategy on the prevailing deadlock when she addresses the first Congress Parliamentary Party meeting of the monsoon session which commenced on July 21. Azad, meanwhile, displayed a firmness of the Congress’ position on resignations of the three BJP leaders when he said the all-party meeting must discuss the Opposition’s motions on the subject.

“There is an old saying: They came, they met, they discussed, they ate and they dispersed. We are not interested in this sequence. In parliamentary democracy, there has to be give and take. So far the government hasn’t displayed intentions of exchange. I have worked as Parliamentary Affairs Minister with three Prime Ministers. I have never seen what I am now seeing on a daily basis. This government doesn’t believe in taking everyone along,” Azad said.

The government has also ruled out climbing down from its position of “no resignations” or even of the PM replying to any of the Opposition’s charges. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today again blamed the Congress for “derailing India’s growth agenda at a time when global credit rating agencies are warning of a slowdown.”

Amid the blame game, it today became apparent that the government would work to divide the Opposition and isolate the Congress on its demands. Azad admitted to these developments today. “The government has been trying to approach individual parties with the intention of dividing them. They are not approaching the Opposition as a whole. They should satisfy the demands being raised by the entire Opposition. That’s the way to get major Bills passed,” Azad said.