No end in sight to Parl logjam

New Delhi, August 9: Parliament is likley to remain paralysed during the last days of monsoon session as Congress Sunday showed no signs of relenting on its protests on the Lalit Modi and Vyapam issues and hit out at the BJP for its ‘‘politics of abuse’’.
The ruling party too sharpened its attack on the Congress saying it had played the role of ‘‘obstructionist and destructive’’ opposition during the session as it was ‘politically bankrupt’.
Twenty-five Congress members of the Lok Sabha, who were suspended by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for five days for unruly behaviour, will be back in the House Monday. Congress leaders, however, parried questions on whether the MPs would again be showing placards in the house, an act that had angered the presiding officer.
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu appealed to the Congress to allow Parliament to function for the remaining four days saying government was willing to consider any meaningful suggestion to break the deadlock, but it failed to break the ice.
‘‘Eight more important bills are there, four bills were already passed in Lok Sabha. I hope Congress understands its responsibility. Let us see what is going to happen (tomorrow). I want Monday to be Monday and I don’t want Monday to be a Sunday,” he told reporters in Chennai.
‘‘I have told them (Congress party) that please come to the House. Let there be discussion. Even the suspension of Congress MPs could be revoked. But there was no response. Even now if there is a meaningful suggestion, the government is willing to consider the suggestion,” Naidu said. The Opposition party, however, told the government it was not amused by the ‘‘politics of abuse’’ resorted to by BJP leaders and Union Ministers against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
‘‘Unfortunately, BJP leadership’s thought process is fast turning to the level of personal abuse as reflected from statements of Kailash Vijayvargiya, Prakash Javadekar, Smriti Irani and Santosh Gangwar.
‘‘We, in Congress, reject in toto and want to tell the Modi government that politics of abuse will never replace the politics of consensus,’’ party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said here.
The Opposition has been demanding resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for links with former IPL?chief Lalit Modi . PTI

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