Congress may boycott all party meet if Centre doesn’t reach out

On Saturday, the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House of Parliament, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, was tight-lipped on whether the Congress would take part in the meeting.

In a blunt message to the government, Congress today said its participation in an an all-party meeting to break the two-week long deadlock in Parliament depended on a “tangible” proposal from the Prime Minister on opposition demands.

Taking a dig at the Opposition, Naidu said Congress may claim “victory” over the washout and feel “happy, very very happy” about it but it had to consider if it was not “harming” the country’s development.

The Congress, supported by some other opposition parties, has been demanding the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over their association with the former Indian premier League chairman, while Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is embroiled in the Vyapam scam controversy.

“We are ready for an all-party meeting”, union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told the media here on Friday.

Government managers are finding it hard to break the unity of the Congress, Left and Janata Dal (United) and may not able to bring arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and BSP and AIADMK and DMK together in the Rajya Sabha, where its legislative business would be affected.

Azad also said the Congress expected the prime minister, and not the home minister, to respond to the debate.

The indication came after the Opposition threw the ball in the government’s court saying it was for it to take initiative and the logjam would continue till then.

Both Sonia Gandhi and party’s vice president Rahul Gandhi have been at the fore front of the aggressive protests by their members. “This is not right”, Kharge said.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and opposition MPs tying black bands in their arms at Parliament house during the monsoon session in New Delhi.

“We won’t go there to have sandwiches and tea”, Sharma said.

“Instead of making national security its priority, they (Congress) have made politics their priority…” He said that the tradition of demanding resignation was set by BJP when they were in opposition. “Even on the execution of death sentence given to 1993 Mumbal blast convict Yakub Memon, their leaders are speaking in different voices”, Jaitley said. “Therefore, now it is about time that parliament is allowed to function”.

The union minister also said that the Congress was feeling “isolated” on the issue and accused it of “going directionless”.