By IANS,
New Delhi : Steel Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan Thursday congratulated Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for defying his party’s advice and continuing in office.
“I will go and meet Somanth-da today and would request him to continue working as speaker for the nation’s interest,” he said at a press conference.
“He was elected as speaker by members of parliament and he should continue. He is an MP before being a speaker,” Paswan added.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Wednesday expelled Chatterjee after he defied party’s advice to give up the speaker’s post ahead of the trust vote, which the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government won.
Paswan, who also holds the chemicals and fertilisers portfolio, also congratulated UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for the trust vote victory.
“I met Sonia Gandhi today and congratulated her,” he said.
He criticized the coalition of the Left parties, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and others terming them as opportunist. “They would soon realize what BSP chief Mayawati is,” he added.
Asked how the government plans to tackle rising inflation, Paswan said: “The way the UPA government has met the challenge of the trust vote, we will soon overcome the problem of inflation too.”
Paswan also criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose three MPs had flashed wads of currency notes in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, alleging they had been offered bribes by the Samajwadi Party to abstain during the crucial trust vote.
“No one in the country believes the BJP today. The whole incident was to lower the dignity of parliament. We want the whole case to be probed to find out how such a huge amount of cash entered parliament,” he added.
“Instead of opposing the (India-US) nuclear deal, the BJP should have supported it in national interest in spite of political differences,” he said.