BJP foresees Congress obstruction during Parliament session

 On the eve of Parliament’s winter session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley suspects that the Congress would pursue the same “destructive direction” to put hurdles in the smooth running of the Houses as it did to damage the national economy during the UPA regime.

Jaitley expressed equally disparaging views in a write-up released to the media on Sunday. He said he was “deeply disappointed” with West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) “Mamata Didi” not taking action against leaders of her party involved in the Saradha chit-fund scam and calling the Burdwan blasts stage-managed.

Aware of the political heat building up between the two parties ahead of next year’s Assembly polls, the TMC, which has expressed willingness to join a broad anti-Modi political platform, wants the BJP to come clean on its expenditures during the Lok Sabha polls, and has accused that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is an RSS man.
The Burdwan blast, said the party, was a part of the BJP’s “devious” master-plan “conceived, drafted and approved by the RSS”.

Livid at the CBI arresting two TMC MPs in the scam, party spokesperson Derek O’ Brien has slammed Jaitley, saying: “If the nation comes to knows how much black money is spent by the BJP, it will become a blacklisted party.” Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, however, tried to douse the political fire, saying: “I request Mamata Banerjee to please understand that the government has no role in the CBI's functioning.”
The TMC has boycotted the all-party meeting called by the Lok Sabha Speaker on Saturday, followed by another a day later by the parliamentary affairs minister to inform them of the legislative business and seek cooperation for maximum output in the session.

In the first Parliament session after Narendra Modi became prime minister, the opposition had accused the NDA of not having enough legislative business to run both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. In “Government and the opposition – A case study”, Jaitley has highlighted what he argued was the difference between the approach of the prime minister and his Cabinet colleagues and the Congress and the TMC.

He observed that in the past one week, while the government was working hard to take the country forward, the opposition, especially the Congress, raised three matters—on the SBI loan of Rs 6,000 crore to the Adani Group, re-launching of the Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and Parliament-functioning, which were regressive and depicted “paucity of issues”.

“Both India and our prime minister were at the centre stage in the G20 meet at Brisbane. What better recognition should there be of India's enhanced stature than (US) President (Barack) Obama agreeing to be chief guest of India at the Republic Day parade?” he asked.

Jaitley gave details of NDA ministers “working overtime to live up to the expectations of the prime minister and the people”.
DH News Service