By IANS
New Delhi : Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi Monday said the opposition appeared to be continuously disrupting parliament proceedings and preventing a debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal “for fear of its own exposure” on its relations with the US when it was in power.
Regretting the opposition attitude and forced sine die adjournment of parliament, Dasmunsi said: “NDA (opposition National Democratic Alliance) deprived the entire house to express their views on the deal (Indo-US nuclear deal) and deprived the government to respond to it, based on the statement of the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) in the house, and did not allow the debate to take place. It appears the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) wanted to avoid any debate in the house for the fear of their own exposure as to what they did in NDA time with the USA.”
Dasmunsi reiterated that “Never in the past, either by convention of parliament or mandate of the constitution has any treaty or agreement ever been referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, and in this session after 17th August ruling of the Hon’ble Speaker in the Lok Sabha where it has been mentioned ‘House is not competent to disapprove the Agreement’, how can a house committee be appointed to examine the issue?”
The minister noted, “There were important issues like price rise and farmers’ problems. Even the devastating flood situation debate did not receive its attention amidst disruptions. Nothing was allowed in the house either in the form of call attention or in the form of debate.”
But BJP parliamentary party spokesperson Vijay Kumar Malhotra blamed it all on the government’s refusal to heed to their demand for a JPC and said, “If they had agreed to our demand, there would have been no impasse.”