With little help from friends, especially the invisible ones, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is hopeful that the Parl-iament would resume normal functioning from Monday.
The visible friend is the Samajwadi Party (SP), which made it clear that though it was opposed to corruption, it wanted a debate on the CAG report. The invisible friends were the Left parties, which despite their opposition to the UPA and especially its ally, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), were committed to a principled (and traditional) opposition to the idea of disruption of Parliament.
In fact, Left parties said there was no imminent danger to the ruling coalition.
Today and tomorrow the disruption was and will be the norm. But despite this, UPA ministers went on record to state that Parliament was likely to resume functioning next week. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, while blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the current stalemate, said, “Today we had invited them (BJP) for talks. But they are probably not willing to talk. Perhaps they will be ready to talk on Monday.”
Meanwhile, there were indications that the Congress, while refusing to kowtow before the Opposition, was still making attempts to reach out. Leader of the House (Lok Sabha) Sushilkumar Shinde met BJP leader Sushma Swaraj in the afternoon, in an effort to break the impasse.
Asked about the possibility of a mid-term poll, Left leader Sitaram Yechury categorically said, “Whether it will happen or not will be decided by the ‘M cube’, or Mulayam, Mayawati and Mamata. Neither we nor the BJP can say that. ‘M cube’ is now supporting the UPA government.”
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While the government can take heart from the words of the Left, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday met a group of young Congress MPs, making clear there was no question of the Congress being on the defensive, but it should rather be on the offensive, dismissing any talk about the PM’s resignation. The MPs, who met Gandhi included Sanjay Nirupam, Sandip Dikshit, Deepinder Hooda, Jyoti Mirdha, Anu Tandon and Ranee Narah.
The BJP was clearly on the horns of a dilemma. Having taken a maximalist position that until the PM resigned on the basis of a CAG report, Parliament would not function, the party could not hide the fact that it had itself ruled out any ground for negotiation. Yashwant Sinha, who briefed reporters today, denied as “speculation” reports that BJP MPs would resign en masse.
BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha ridiculed the suggestion. “Ask BJP MPs in the Rajya Sabha to quit first. Then we will follow,” said a senior Lok Sabha MP. Speaking to alliance partners, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, said there was no question of resigning from the Lok Sabha. However, two options — a boycott of Parliament for the rest of the session and quitting all committees of which the party MPs are members — were being discussed.
Some clarity will be there on Monday morning as the government has planned a meeting of all parties on the coalgate issue.
The two Houses of Parliament are likely to be disrupted on Friday as well.