leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj tore into Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday, accusing her of engineering the rumpus in the lower House and having no faith in Indian democratic institutions.
Swaraj’s broadside against the UPA chairperson came as the relationship between the Opposition and the Government took a turn for the worse on Tuesday.
The principal Opposition party announced that it would boycott meetings called by lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath.
The BJP’s aggressive positioning came after Swaraj’s speech in the lok Sabha was disrupted by a UPA Minister and Congress MPs at the behest of the Congress chief.
Swaraj is peeved that Speaker Meira Kumar, who had allowed her to make a speech, did not come to her rescue while the Parliamentary Affairs Minister led the Gandhi-sponsored disruption.
On Monday, the Government had agreed to allow Swaraj to make a speech before the BJP would stage a walkout to facilitate passage of the Finance Bill and the Railway Budget. “With a full sense of responsibility, I wish to state that the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has no faith in Indian democratic institutions. It is because of her that the UPA Government is demolishing every institution. They taunt CAG, create ruckus in PAC meetings, resort to favouritism in JPC, pressurise the CBI, mislead the Supreme Court and do not allow the Opposition to speak in Parliament,” Swaraj told reporters.
She added: “Irrespective of whatever is decided in an all party meeting, the Parliament functions according to the wishes of Sonia Gandhi.
“She leads the rumpus in lok Sabha. There have been several instances in the past. There has to be an end to this. Even the Speaker did not protect us. Instead of asking the Congress MPs to sit down, she kept telling me to finish my speech,” Sushma said
Swaraj was upset that Kamal Nath, who has the responsibility of running the House, was at the forefront of the ruckus that was created to disrupt the House. “There is a total breakdown and the Government is responsible for it,” Swaraj added.
She replied in the negative to queries on possibilities of the BJP moving a no-confidence motion against the Congress or proposal of en-masse resignations from the House to further corner the Government.
“Our strategy is session specific. Our boycott and no-cooperation with the Government is for this session. let us see how they respond to it. If the situation remains unchanged even during the Monsoon Session, our protests would continue,” she said.
Swaraj ruled out support to the land Acquisition and Food Security Bill planned by the Government.
Earlier in the House, she justified the week-long protests by the BJP and other parties, saying as a responsible Opposition it was their job to expose the “most corrupt Government since Independence”.
“The Government does not want us to raise these (corruption) issues. They do not just commit scams but also engage in various acts to protect the Prime Minister and the law Minister,” she said, with Congress members shouting back at her.
“The Government is criticising our protests in Parliament. The Prime Minister says the Opposition’s attitude is making us a laughing stock in the global arena. The media says this House has witnessed the highest number of disruptions. But the Government itself is solely responsible for this situation,” Swaraj said.
Terming the UPA Government as “the most corrupt since Independence,” the BJP leader said a series of scams have surfaced since it took over and “each new scam breaks the past record.”
While the Commonwealth Games scam had caused a loss of Rs 70,000 crore, the 2G spectrum scam led to a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore and the coal scam resulted in the “loot” of Rs 1.86 lakh crore. “And they want to stop us from speaking out,” she said.
Maintaining that a responsible Opposition acted as a “watchdog”, Swaraj asked, “Are we stopping the session for our personal interests or for quota permit for our family membersIJ Even the Supreme Court has said this Government has broken the trust and shaken the foundations.”