Signalling that the upcoming Budget session of Parliament could be stormy, Congress today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not expect the opposition to "bend over backwards" when "so many charges are in public domain".
Accusing the Prime Minister of "completely and absolutely failing to show statesmanship" in ensuring smooth conduct of Parliament, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said the government is trying to browbeat the opposition charging it with disrupting House proceedings.
"It is the responsibility of the government to run Parliament. It is their responsibility to reach out to opposition and try and establish a modus-vivendi conducive for smooth functioning of the House and the Prime Minister has completely and absolutely failed to show that statesmanship," he said.
Tewari said, in this backdrop, for the Prime Minister to expect that the opposition will "bend over backwards, especially when there are so many charges in the public domain, I guess it is possibly expecting too much".
The Congress statement came at a time when the opposition is on the offensive over the Gujarat land deal issue and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and sought a clarification from the Prime Minister. It is also sought a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe into all land deals during Modi's tenure as the Gujarat Chief Minister.
Several opposition parties have upped the ante against the Centre over the issue of imposition of President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh, suicide by dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University and the Pathankot terror strike.
Tewari was asked about the Prime Minister's attack on the Gandhi family and whether Congress would adopt the strategy followed by NDA when it was in opposition.
Expressing surprise over the Prime Minister's statement on disruption in Parliament, he said Modi is possibly not taking into account how his party had behaved while it was in the opposition.
The Congress leader said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, when he was the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, had proclaimed that disruption of Parliament is a "legitimate parliamentary tactic".
"So, therefore, I think it would be just appropriate that the opposition holds the government accountable to the same standard," he said, adding there are "substantive issues which have been raised and there are no answers on them".
(REOPENS DEL74)
Responding to the Prime Minister's charge that Congress delayed the Paradip refinery project in Odisha, Tewari said this is the "standard practice" the Prime Minster follows whether he is in India or abroad.
"Except for charging the Congress, there is nothing worthwhile that he does. But the facts in this case are different," he said.
He said the fact is that the foundation of the Paradip refinery was laid in 2000 by then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
During Vajpayee's tenure, because of either non-cooperation by the state government or various other reasons, the project was withdrawn by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Tewari claimed, adding when the UPA came to power in 2004, there was no refinery project in Paradip.
In 2006, the project was initiated afresh. An allocation of Rs 35,000 crore was made by the Manmohan Singh government and the project was scheduled to be completed by 2012-13.
By the time the UPA government demitted office, 95 per cent of the work had been done, Tewari said.
"There is not a single extra paisa which this government had allocated. There is not a single thing which they have done except for going and cutting the ribbon," Tewari said.
In a statement, former Union Minister Srikant Jena, who hails from Odisha, said, "Unfortunate and saddening fact is that Modi's entire rhetoric in repeated speeches is founded upon blame game and criticising the previous governments instead of providing leadership to the nation on the road ahead."
"Net consequence is that repeated public utterances of Prime Minister Modi are based on deliberate ignorance and selective amnesia towards facts," Jena added.
