The Congress on Thursday made a veiled attack on lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan saying “blindly” referring the case of citizenship of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to the Ethics Committee of the lok Sabha showed “hatred” against the party leadership and the Opposition.
A day after the first leg of Budget Session, the party also took credit for the passage of several bills but struck a cautious note on Government’s claim that the much delayed GST Bill would be passed in the second phase of the Parliament session.
Former Union Minister M Veerapa Moily said a “dark spot” of the just concluded first part of the Budget session of Parliament was the discussion in the lok Sabha on the Ishrat Jahan issue. “It was a black day for the lok Sabha,”Moily said.
Addressing a joint Press conference with leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Moily lamented that the case of Congress vice president has been referred to the Ethics Committee “without any sense of judgement”.
“Blindly referring the case of citizenship of Rahul Gandhi to the Ethics Committee, without any sense of judgement, without making any case, shows hatred against the Congress leadership, against the Opposition,” he remarked.
In January, Mahajan had forwarded to the Ethics Committee of Parliament a complaint by a BJP MP alleging that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had presented himself as a British citizen to float a firm there. The Ethics Committee is chaired by BJP veteran lK Advani.
BJP MP from East Delhi Maheish Girri, had some time back written to the Speaker requesting for “appropriate inquiry” into the allegations of his party colleague Subramanian Swamy that Rahul had declared himself as a British citizen to float a firm in that country. Requesting the Speaker to initiate an appropriate inquiry, Girri had said it was necessary that people should know the reality.
On Isharat Jahan issue, Moily wondered how a discussion on the matter took place in lok Sabha and alleged that there has been a “design” to “subvert” cases against some officers in the CBI court. He said three authorities including those from judiciary ones have found Ishrat was killed in a fake encounter.
Congress also took credit for the passage of several Bills in the Budget session. But when asked about Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu expressing confidence that the key GST Bill would be passed in the second phase, Azad said the Government has so far not talked to the Opposition on taking up the bill.
“We will cross the bridge, when we come to it,” Azad said. Insisting that such bills are first taken up by the Government with Opposition and other political parties in the Business Advisory Committees of the lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Azad said the GST was not brought up there.
Azad replied in a similar vein when asked about Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that it was difficult to accept Congress’ demand to cap GST rate in the pending Constitution Amendment bill.
Seeking to take credit for passage of several bills, Moily said, “Rajya Sabha functioned at 129 per cent of the scheduled time and lok Sabha at 120 per cent. This is in contrast to the performance of the Opposition led by BJP during UPA-II, when the House wasn’t allowed to function.”
Azad said it was on the insistence of Congress, and not the Government, there were extra sittings in Parliament. “Without the cooperation of Congress, no legislation would have been passed in the Rajya Sabha,” he said underlining that the Government lacked majority in the Upper House.
He claimed the Prime Minister had refused to answer “any of the issues” that were raised by the Opposition, including the Pathankot terror attack, farmers suffering due to unseasonal rains, black money, and the Vijay Mallya issue. “Sadly, the Prime Minister did not respond to any of these questions,’ he said.