By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress Saturday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its reservations over Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourning the house sine die Thursday midnight after the government sought more time to study the opposition’s amendments to the Lokpal bill.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi accused the BJP of having a “consistent and repeated history” of attacking constitutional institutions.
Singhvi termed the BJP’s reservations over Ansari’s decision as “unfair” and said the opposition party has a habit of sensationalising and seeing conspiracies lurking everywhere.
“Now they want to pass on the responsibility as they were never interested in passage of the bill,” he said.
Another spokesperson, Raashid Alvi said that the chairman had no other option but to adjourn the house.
“Doubting the chairman’s decision is very unfortunate. He is respectable for everyone,” Alvi told IANS.
Rajya Sabha sources also clarified that the chairman had taken the decision to adjourn the house to avoid a constitutional crisis as the government was unwilling to extend the session beyond midnight, when the winter session was scheduled to end.
They said if the chairman had taken a decision to continue the house and if the government had protested, it would have led to a constitutional crisis.
“The action taken by the Rajya Sabha chairman was to avoid a constitutional crisis. The decision to convene a new session and adjourn a session sine die is taken by the president on the aid and advice of the council of ministers,” a Rajya Sabha official said.
“Since the government was unwilling to extend the session beyond midnight, at which time the winter session was coming to an end, the Rajya Sabha chairman was left with little choice but to adjourn the session sine die,” he added.
The Congress’ remarks came after the BJP indicated that it was unhappy over the way Ansari adjourned the house despite pleading by opposition members that they were willing to sit the whole night to pass the Lokpal bill.
“I have strong views on that ruling but I will keep it to myself,” Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had said.
Ansari adjourned the Rajya Sabha observing that there was an impasse and the house could not be run smoothly.