Bjp Blames Congress For Parliament Logjam

NEW DELHI: With both Houses of Parliament being adjourned till Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday mocked the ruling Congress Party's rigid attitude in perpetually blaming the opposition for disrupting proceedings.

"Some people have spread this rumour that the Parliament cannot function because of the opposition. Every time the proceedings of the parliament get disrupted due to the rigid ness of the Congress Party, resulting in obstruction," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told mediapersons here.

"We have asked for holding discussion on black money and inflation. We have also said that neither we will listen to P Chidambaram nor we would let him speak during the session because in 2G spectrum, either on the findings of PAC (Public Accounts Committee) or the findings of finance ministry, it was mentioned that if Chidambaram wanted, then this scam could have been prevented," he added.

Meanwhile, another BJP leader Balbir Punj said the probe in the telecom scam could not be conducted in a fair manner as long as Chidambaram holds the position of the Home Minister.

"We will continue to boycott Mr. Chidambaram because we see in him an accused in the biggest scam of independent India running into Rs. 176 crores and no investigation, independent objective investigation is possible till this man continue to occupy the powerful position of the home minister," he said.

Chidambaram has been at the centre of an extensive political storm ever since certain reports revealed of his alleged role in ''deciding'' the prices of 2G-spectrum during his earlier tenure as the Finance Minister, thus embroiling him in the telecom scam.

His name cropped up in a recent letter of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which Mukherjee blamed his predecessor for not sticking to the established procedures in auctioning of the 2-G spectrum.

The letter stated that sufficient steps were not taken by Chidambaram to prevent the colossal scam from occurring in the first place, considering he could have ''stuck to the stand'' of auctioning of the precious spectrum instead of giving it at throwaway prices.

The telecom scam, one of India's biggest graft cases ever, may have cost 39.57 billion dollars in revenue to the public exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

A Raja was sacked in November last year and later arrested after being charged with giving away telecom licences in 2008 for a pittance, at meagre prices of 2001 in the CAG report. Raja is presently facing trial along with a group of telecom executives and DMK lawmaker Kanimozhi.

Meanwhile, BJP another spokesperson Prakash Javadekar accused the Congress Party over its failure to deal with rising prices of essential commodities.

"There was issue of inflation also which also we want discussion under voting rule. So all these are the issues which government is not ready to discuss. So here is the case where opposition wants immediate discussion and government is running away from the discussion," said Javadekar.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Basudev Acharya also echoed similar sentiments and accused the government for not resolving the issues related with inflation and the fall in the value of rupee.

"The farmers commit suicide because of the rapid increase in the prices of fertilizers and other products that are required for their crop. The farmers are not being compensated adequately for their produce. The farmers are forced to sell their produce at half the cost of the minimum support price. This is the condition of our country," said Acharya.

"We want a discussion on all these questions. However, on the issue of inflation and on the value of currency, we want to bring in an adjournment motion and the government must accept it," he added.

Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned till Thursday, as the opposition refused to back down on the issue of price rise and other issues.

Food inflation has been stubbornly high over the last few years in India, in spite of record foodgrain production and robust buffer stocks.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has already raised rates 13 times since early March 2010 to clamp down on stubborn inflation, largely driven by high food prices.

Inflation has remained over nine percent since December 2010. The headline inflation measured on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was 9.7 percent in October, while the rate of price in food segment for the week ended November 05 was 10.6 per cent.