As the Opposition continued to disrupt proceedings in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday over the demonetisation issue and demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence in the House, leader of House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hit back saying the Opposition was running away from a discussion and instead was interested in grabbing TV headlines. “If the Opposition has the guts, the debate should resume,” Jaitley challenged.
With the House witnessing frequent disruptions in the pre and post-lunch session, Jaitley also said there was no precedent since 1952 that the Prime Minister should sit throughout the debate and listen to every member.
He made this observation as some Opposition members including Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Naresh Agrawal (SP) and Anand Sharma (Congress) asserted that there were precedents in the House when during debates on 2G spectrum and coal scams, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sat through the entire debate.
Countering the Opposition charges over demonetisation, Jaitley said the Opposition was using the tactics of disruption on a daily basis rather than resuming the discussion initiated on the first day of the Winter sSession on November 16 and which is yet to conclude.
The Government, he said, had not wasted even a minute to agree to a debate on the issue. It also agreed to the rule under which the debate is to be conducted as well as to the demand that the Prime Minister will participate in it.
On the Opposition’s persistent demand for Modi’s presence, Jaitley asked them to “honestly” say whether they wanted a debate on demonetisation and told them not to impose “unreasonable and impossible” conditions.
Jaitley said the Government and the Council of Ministers functioned under the principle of collective responsibility and there was no principle that a particular person has to answer the questions raised.
However, instead of participating and concluding the debate, he said, the Opposition has been using the Zero Hour to raise the issue for “getting footage on TV” rather than listening to substantive facts on the issue.
Immediately, thereafter, BJP members started raising slogans like “himmat hai to charcha karo (If you have guts, discuss the matter).”