By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress Tuesday termed the opposition demand to roll back the decision allowing foreign equity in retail if the government wants parliament to run as “utterly irresponsible and obstinate” and accused them of indulging in “political blackmail”.
“The opposition demand to roll back decision allowing foreign equity in retail if the parliament has to run is utterly irresponsible and obstinate,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters.
“It is like a political blackmail.”
However, in response to a similar demand coming from United Progressive Alliance allies Trinamool Congress and the DMK, Singhvi said “convincing the allies on the issue is the botheration of the Congress”.
“They are our allies, we will persuade them,” he said.
Taking a dig at the opposition, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party’s demand for a roll back of the FDI decision, Singhvi said: “The party has changed ground and excuse to disrupt parliament in the past six days since the winter session started on Nov 22.”
According to the Congress spokesperson, the list of BJP’s reasons for not letting the parliament function has changed many times since Nov 22 – from demanding resignation of Home Minister P. Chidambaram over his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, to debates over price rise and black money issue, and now rolling back the decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail.
“Rather than debating the FDI issue, the opposition is putting a condition that they will allow the parliament to run only if the decision is rolled back,” said Singhvi, adding “you can’t put conditions like this”.
Stating that the Congress was ready to debate the issue, Singhvi said it is for Speaker Meira Kumar to decide under which rule the debate will take place.
The opposition has been demanding a debate under a rule which entails voting.
Charging the opposition with “turning parliament into a field for agitation”, Singhvi said “parliament is meant to debate and make laws”.
He said the government was “fair and transparent” in taking the FDI in retail decision and is “open” to diverse opinion on it.
“This is not a policy decision which is related to a legislation and hence should have been brought in parliament,” said Singhvi.