leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Friday hit out at the Government for abruptly ending the Winter Session of Parliament two days ahead of the schedule and charged that the UPA has lost the will to rule. Jaitley claimed it would be an understatement to call the UPA a lame duck Government and it should be better described as a “dead duck”.
Alleging that “no effort was made” to get the session to run and that session had to be “abandoned midway”, the senior BJP leader taunted the Congress saying its leaders have lost even the will to fight back.
“The arrogance of power was writ large in the statements of its Ministers and leaders. They thought that power is immortal and no other political combination will ever displace them. Excessive propaganda has its dangers. The people do not digest such propaganda. Only the UPA leaders are buying their own propaganda. The recently concluded session of Parliament evidenced this loss of capacity and will to rule,” he wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Claiming that disturbance (in the Winter Session) was predominantly by the UPA members, their allies and supporters, Jaitley quipped that their leader (Rahul Gandhi) has decided to join the bandwagon on lokpal though belatedly. “In the process he even forgot his ‘game changer’ speech delivered two years ago in the lok Sabha where he had argued exactly the opposite,” he said.
On the last day of Parliament Session, Jaitley claimed, the Home Minister tried his best to push
through the Communal Violence Bill for introduction in the Rajya Sabha.
“The Bill is divisive. It seeks to polarise the society. It infringes the federal structure of the Constitution. Although these motivations were inappropriate, the incompetence of the Home Ministry prevented the introduction. It could not get the printed version of the Bill ready in time for being listed in the agenda,” he said.
Claiming that the Prime Minister was never perceived to be a mass leader, Jaitley asserted that the projection by the UPA of their next generation leader has even not taken off. “Even a brief conversation with Congress leaders familiarises one of the despondency,” he said.