At the fag end of the budget session of Parliament, BJP allies _ TDP, Trinamool Congress and JD(U) _ joined hands with the Congress and the Left to urge Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the Lok Sabha to reconsider the demand to rollback prices of essential commodities increased by the government during the session.
The Prime Minster ruled out a reconsideration and spoke disapprovingly of the Congress, which, according to him, should have understood the compulsions of the government. For the allies though, he had sweet words.
He said he would find ways to please them.
"We will find a way to please friendly parties," Vajpayee said. For the Congress, he had reserved some harsh words, "Perhaps it is the first time that the Opposition has decided to jump into the battlefield after making it into an issue. If we could do without imposing a burden on the people, we would not have taken the unpopular decision." Vajpayee expressed confidence that people would understand the problems of the government.
The Prime Minister said the country's economic condition was not good and hard decisions had to be taken. There was a lighter moment when a member from the Opposition said, "You have the mandate to increase prices", when the Prime Minister said his government came to power with a popular mandate.
Vajpayee said once he had replied in detail to the Congress delegation that came to meet him on Tuesday and rejected their demand for a rollback, they should not have made it an issue once again in the House. He said he still hoped that the Opposition would understand the compulsions before the government and let this issue lie. He was referring to the speech of the leader of Opposition and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.
Gandhi, who spoke before him, once again raised the price issue and criticised the government for its `faulty' policies of imposing burden on the poorest and the middle classes, farmers and the housewives. Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI(M) also took up the price issue and demanded that the government should reconsider its decision.
