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The government on Thursday sought to make the most of the Opposition boycott of the Lok Sabha and the Congess criticism of the Naga accord. The Lok Sabha also passed two Bills - one related to repeal of 295 obsolete laws, while the other was an amendment to the Negotiable Instruments Act.
The amendments to the Negotiable Instruments Act provide for filing of cheque bounce cases at the place where a cheque is presented for clearance and not the place of issue. This will have implications for over 18 lakh cheque bounce cases pending in various courts, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said. The Rajya Sabha repeatedly disrupted and couldn't transact any business.
The boycott of the Lok Sabha enabled External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to make a statement on she having ostensibly helped former Indian Premier Commissioner Lalit Modi get his travel documents from the UK government. Later, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman criticised Congress President Sonia Gandhi for not standing with the government on an issue of national security like the Naga accord.
Sitharaman disputed a claim by Congress President that the government did not consult chief ministers of Congress ruled northeastern states before signing an agreement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (IM). "We reject this. Congress CMs were called for consultations but chose to boycott the meeting," she said, terming Congress position as worrisome that the party had reached its absolute "nadir".
The Minister said it was unfortunate that the Congress leadership having asked its Arunachal Pradesh CM Nabam Tuki, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi and its Arunachal MP Ninong Ering to take back their words welcoming the accord, including Ering have been asked to delete his tweet where he had termed the agreement as "historic".
Gandhi had said when she called her party's chief ministers of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, who are directly affected by the Naga accord, she found that they were "totally blank" on the issue.
Sitharaman also rejected the Congress charge that is CMs were not consulted on important issues. She said Congress CMs were invited to the NITI Aayog meeting on the land Bill but chose to boycott it. The Minister accused the Congress for scuttling measures like the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a cause it had earlier championed.
Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Swaraj, in an emotional statement in the Lok Sabha, claimed she had made no "request or recommendation" to the UK government for giving travel documents to former Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi but tried to help his cancer stricken wife.
The Congress has been demanding Swaraj's resignation and an inquiry into the issue of her help to Lalit Modi. She regretted that "her friends" in the opposition had been targeting her and not ready to listen to her version. The Congress has led the protests inside the House leading to the Rajya Sabha proceedings washed out.
Swaraj said she had only told the British government that relations with that country will not be affected if they choose to provide Lalit Modi travel documents to visit Portugal to be with his wife who was facing "life threatening" ailment and required immediate treatment which was full of risk.
"His wife has been suffering from cancer for the last 17 years and it is the 10th time it has recurred... I want to ask what Sonia Gandhi would have done had she been in my place. Would she have left her to die," she said, reading from the reports of Portuguese doctors and the statement of Modi's wife.
