Congress adamant on 'no resignation, no House'

The party has been demanding resignations of Vasundhara Raje and Sushma Swaraj over 'Lalitgate' and of Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan for Vyapam

There is little hope of Monday's all-party meeting resolving the parliamentary logjam. The Congress is unwilling to relent on its "no resignation, no House" strategy.

The Congress has been demanding the resignations of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over controversies involving Indian Premier League's former chief Lalit Modi and of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the Vyapam scam. The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has been quick to rake up the 'saffron terror' issue when some in the Congress questioned the hanging of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon, though the Congress distanced itself from these comments.

The party rank and file is likely to use the Congress being 'opposed' to Memon's hanging effectively in the forthcoming Bihar polls, while the party leadership will continue to demand answers on the issue from the top Congress leadership. Congress leader P Chidambaram has called it a 'diversionary tactic', but it's his own party that has given this opportunity to the BJP on a platter.

Blaming the BJP-led government for the ongoing logjam in Parliament, Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh told reporters: "We are not alone in Parliament. We are being supported by the Left parties, JD(U) and several others. Questions were raised for how many days we can run it (our demand), but from Day 1 we are saying resignation first and discussion later." He recalled of the stand taken by BJP five years ago when they said parliamentary disruption is a "legitimate tactic". Referring to the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) meeting on Monday, he said the party's stand would become clear in the speech of president Sonia Gandhi. The Congress also hit back at Union Minister Mahesh Sharma for his suggestion of 'no work, no pay' policy over the logjam in Parliament, saying such views were "wrong" as Congress MPs were "working hard".

"We are working. We have standing committee meetings," Jairam told reporters. "I have a select committee meeting on land tomorrow and also a standing committee meeting on health. Therefore, it is wrong to say MPs are not working. MPs are working hard."

Sharma had on Saturday said in Varanasi that there is a suggestion for applying 'no work, no pay' policy on MPs like it is being done with regard to bureaucrats, triggering a debate after which he went into a denial mode.

In its reaction, the BJP on Sunday said there was no such proposal before the government but the government would not mind discussing the issue. "The government would not mind discussion on 'no work, no pay' issue. But as of now there is no such matter before the government," Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here.