Facing opposition attack over the state of the economy, a combative Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today took the battle to the BJP camp as he accused it of hampering growth and hurting investor sentiment by repeatedly disrupting Parliament, triggering a war of words.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Singh reflected a sense of hurt over being personally attacked by the main opposition.
"Have you heard of any country where the Prime Minister is not allowed to introduce his council of ministers?
"...Have you heard of Parliament in any country where the opposition shouts in the Well 'Prime Minister chor hai'? The type of things that have been said here....," he said while responding to clarifications sought on his statement on the state of the economy.
This triggered an uproar by BJP members. Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley shot back saying, "have you heard of any country where the Prime Minister has won the vote of confidence by buying MPs?"
The reference was apparently to the July 2008 Trust Vote sought by the Prime Minister in the wake of Left parties withdrawing support on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue.
Jaitley's comment led to protests by Congress benches, with Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister V Narayanasamy and others being in the lead.
Jaitley said the Prime Minister should not talk politics but specify what is being done to address the economic woes.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked the BJP members not to disrupt the Prime Minister's statement as they also had spoken about politics. "We also heard you," he told the BJP.
Attacking BJP for continuously "opposing and criticising" the government, Singh said, "If the record of the last nine years is looked at, the principle opposition has never reconciled to the fact that it was voted out of power nine years back."
The Prime Minister underlined that investor confidence is affected if Parliament, "the supreme body of the country" is not allowed to function session after session.
"Building of consensus is both the responsibility of government and the opposition. I wish the conduct of the opposition party was consistent while letting the ruling party govern," he said.
