BJP MPs to give Rs 10000 each for flood relief

A luncheon hosted for agitating Congress leaders by BJP floor managers today failed to break the Parliamentary logjam as was evident in the Rajya Sabha which could not transact any business even after the reach-out meeting.

The ruling BJP believes that the Congress’ objections to the Constitution (122nd Amendment) (GST) Bill are not on substantive issues but part of a design to scuttle the passage of the bill in the remaining six working days of the winter session of Parliament.

The meeting today came as Government decided to make a fresh bid to break the logjam.

“The Congress party is making the Parliament a venue to defend the Gandhis and its chief ministers”. The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the reasons for the ongoing washout of the winter session “keep changing by the hour”.

Jaitley also stressed that the transfer of Enforcement Directorate chief Rajan S. Katoch was not related to the case.

“The last session of Parliament did not function”.

“Engagement between central government and opposition can not be restricted to one issue”.

With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi unrelenting on his strategy to further escalate confrontation with the government, rollout of the ambitious Goods and Services Tax appears set to miss its April 1, 2016 deadline.

Conceding that like the monsoon sitting, the current session was “also threatened with a washout”, Jaitley said: “The question we need to ask ourselves is, are we being fair to ourselves and this country?” “All this is being indefinitely delayed”, he said on the social networking platform soon after a meeting with Congress leaders ended inconclusively.

In a blog, Mr Jaitley invoked the name of Congress icon Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first Prime Minister, to remind that party of its MPs’ responsibility for the country’s governance through Parliament. A source explained that the presence of the Lok Sabha members was important because if and when the Rajya Sabha passes the bill with amendments, it will return to the Lower house to be signed and stamped for its approval. “The fact that both the Congress president and vice-president have not moved the Supreme Court for an exemption from personal appearance is a legal issue and their legal advisers will look into it”, Mr. Kamal Nath told The Hindu. I recall that when I was Parliamentary Affairs Minister, the BJP made a decision to oppose the GST Bill because they were not in the mood to clear it, not because of any specific issue in the Bill.