The Congress on Monday slammed the “productive session” pitch of NDA Government and said that this is the intersection of hypocrisy, sermonising and doing precisely the opposite of what they were doing when they were in the Opposition.
The party’s attack came a day after the Government spoke of the need to make the Winter Session a productive one and asked the Opposition parties to respect the spirit of the mandate given to BJP to run the Government.
AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi also attacked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley alleging that he also betrays the same characteristics. Jaitley had accused Congress of damaging the economy, both while in Government and as an Opposition party. Singhvi also slammed the Government on proposed changes in the land Acquisition Act.
“Has the influence of corporates become so great in just a few months since this Government came to power that they are now treating as villain a Bill which was supported by themIJ Has the Bill become now so bad. We hope that the land Acquisition Bill is not dictated by corporates. We hope that in the guise of changing norms and environment laws, you are not making free in and out a policy,” Singhvi said.
Citing figures of disruptions during the UPA tenure, he said that the productive time in the last five years stands at 61 per cent and the lok Sabha passed 179 of the 328 Bills which were to be taken up during that period. “That is the lowest number of Bills passed by a full five year-term lok Sabha. In comparison, the 13th and 14th lok Sabhas passed 297 and 248 Bills, respectively. Only 61 per cent of its scheduled time could be made productive. This has been the worst performance of the lower House in more than 50 years,” Singhvi said.
Alleging that the Question Hour had been the worst casualty when BJP was in the Opposition, Singhvi said that while in Winter Session of 2010 only 0.78 per cent of the time was devoted to questions, it was just 1.23 per cent in the Monsoon session of 2012.