 "Govt's two-pronged strategy to counter Oppn protests in Parliament")
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday pursued a two-pronged strategy to neutralise the Opposition’s attack in Parliament. The BJP gameplan involved targeting Congress chief ministers and state governments run by that party for their role in alleged scams, while Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan cautioned Opposition MPs with disciplinary action if they continued with their disorderly conduct.
The Opposition protests ensured that no business was transacted for the second day in succession in either House. It isn’t clear whether the Speaker is likely to deliver on her threat. The Speaker can ask a member to “withdraw” from the House for a specific period for disorderly conduct or even ask marshals to physically keep an MP from attending House proceedings. The Speaker’s warning to Congress and Left MPs came after they stormed the well of the Lok Sabha with placards to protest government inaction in the Lalitgate controversy.
Ruling coalition strategists were hopeful that a sustained counter attack will break the Opposition unity and also influence Congress to let the House function at least in the last week of the session to allow for the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment Bill. BJP MPs moved motions to demand short duration discussions on eight alleged scams in Congress and Trinamool Congress-ruled states. The Saradha chit fund scam didn’t feature in the list.
The Congress continued to demand a probe and resignations of Swaraj, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there was no basis to demand a probe as Swaraj had not violated any law, while issues related to Chouhan and Raje were state-specific issues that Parliament shouldn’t discuss. He said the government was ready for a debate, while the Congress continues to change its demands.
At the BJP parliamentary party meeting in the morning that Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired, Swaraj spoke for 20 minutes to defend herself as well as Chouhan. There was, however, no mention of Raje. BJP President Amit Shah asked MPs to effectively counter Congress misinformation, while Jaitley, in a reference to senior party leader Shanta Kumar, said senior party leaders should verify facts if they want to publicly air grievances. Kumar, an MP from Himachal Pradesh, had earlier this month written to Shah how the Vyapam scam has embarrassed the party. BJP sources said Kumar could even be expelled from the party if he continued criticising the party leadership in the media.
Swaraj also decided to take the fight to the Congress camp in the morning. She tweeted: “A senior Congress leader was pressing me hard to give diplomatic passport to the coal scam accused Santosh Bagrodia. I will disclose name of the leader on the floor of the House.” BJP sources claimed its counter-offensive worked as Congress cancelled a sit-in protest it had planned in the morning. But Congress leaders said no sit-in protest was planned.
In a boost to the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati joined in to berate the PM for failing to live up to his commitment that he will neither indulge in corruption nor allow others in his government to do so. But there were chinks in the opposition armour with Samajwadi Party (SP) sources indicating that they neither wanted Swaraj to quit nor were they willing to continue following the Congress’ lead in disrupting the proceedings. The BSP is also expected to follow a more independent line in the days to come.
In the evening, the BJP held press conferences to question Congress credentials to raise corruption issues by pointing out the conviction of former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister PK Thungan in a graft case as well as releasing a sting that purportedly showed personal secretary of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat “making money” by promising to ensure a tweaking of the state’s liquor policy to distributors. Rawat rejected the allegations as baseless. The BJP distributed a booklet on the ‘saga of scams in Congress-ruled states’ and will talk about alleged scams in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka in the coming days.