NDA targets PM, boycotts meet

Both Houses of Parliament saw a quiet conduct of business today as the Opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) boycotted proceedings protesting against Lalu Prasad's continuation in the Union council of ministers.

But outside the House, the real fireworks were going on with the NDA boycotting even the all-party meeting called by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to resolve the impasse and accusing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of political opportunism.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary party spokesman VK Malhotra informed the Speaker in the morning that the NDA would stay away from the all-party meet.

The Prime Minister also spoke to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani in the evening in an attempt to get the Opposition back into Parliament. But the BJP rejected Singh's plea and said, "It will continue for 3 days" as scheduled.

"The Prime Minister telephoned me and spoke about ending the stalemate in Parliament. But I told him that it was not the decision of a single individual but a unanimous decision taken by all members of the NDA," Advani told reporters on the sidelines of an award ceremony here.

After a meeting of the alliance partners, the NDA came out with a statement accusing the Prime Minister of rank political opportunism by not removing Prasad on moral grounds, "since he was an important ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)."

Reading the statement, NDA convener George Fernandes also accused Prasad of "misusing his authority in the government and political clout to subvert the legal and democratic processes."

"The Prime Minister is guilty of practising the worst kind of political opportunism in retaining these ministers, brushing aside all moral principles, scruples and democratic propriety," Fernandes alleged.

The NDA statement also accused the government of adopting a "vindictive, confrontationist and hostile attitude" towards the opposition alliance.

In this regard, it cited the removal of governors appointed by the NDA government, the manner in which fernandes was "being targeted and maligned" and the way in which the second affidavit was filed in the supreme court "to contradict the truth" in the first affifavit on kargil arms purchases as proofs of the "undemocratic and petty-minded approach" of the government towards the main opposition "reminiscent of the emergency days".

The statement went into detail about how the previous NDA government had taken the moral high ground and asked similarly chargesheeted ministers to resign in the past, in the Hawala and other corruption related scandals.

"The Ayodhya case has often been used to justify what the present government is doing. What needs to be highlighted is the fact that these cases relate to a movement and have nothing to do with corruption," said Fernandes.

He added that it was not correct to compare the Ayodhya case to the cases against Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Leader of the opposition and BJP president L K Advani on his part said that the UPA government's behaviour was reminiscent of the 1975, emergency era.

"Then as now, the government perceived an active opposition not as an asset but as an enemy, this government is behaving as though they do not want an opposition," he said.

"At the time of emergency, we were all put into jail for expressing our opinion, and the situation now is hurtling towards that stage where all democratic norms are to be thrown to the winds," he said.

He alleged that a witch hunt had been launched against former ministers in the NDA government especially former defence minister George Fernandes, and the two affidavits filed in the cases of defence procurement.