By IANS,
New Delhi : After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday accused the opposition of wasting the monsoon session of parliament, the BJP fired back saying “the protest was also a part of democracy”.
“I would like to remind the prime minister, when he was leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, they had stalled parliament over the Tehelka issue. Even over the coffin scam, they stalled parliament and called us coffin theives,” Sushma Swaraj said.
“Not allowing parliament to function is also a form of democracy like any other form,” Sushma Swaraj added.
Backing her, BJP leader Arun Jaitley called irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks, a “textbook case of crony capitalism.”
Earlier, hitting out at the BJP for disrupting parliament, the prime minister had said the parliament disruption witnessed was “total negation” of democracy. All “right thinking people”, he added, should stand up to say that institutions should be allowed to function.
“We take pride in the fact we had a functional democracy. But what we have witnessed in this session is total negation of that,” he said outside the parliament.
Parliament was adjourned sine die Friday, after a month-long monsoon session that witnessed 13 days of disruption in the 20-day session.
The BJP has been demanding prime minister’s resignation as they have alleged that the allocations were made when he was coal minister.