Congress accuses govt of being insensitive

Congress on Wednesday hit back at the government for targeting it for disruptions in the Indian Parliament alleging that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) dispensation was being “very insensitive” to the demands of its detractors and pursuing the agenda of “opposition-mukt bharat.” 

Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House of Parliament Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad also singled out Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu for attack remarking that “I have never seen a Parliamentary Affairs Minister spearheading confrontation.” 

Asking the government to shed its “arrogance and vendetta politics”, Azad, who had been Parliamentary Affairs Minister thrice, said when in power, Congress often took up issues raised by the Opposition.

“Then, I had told my colleagues that duty of Parliamentary Affairs Minister is to work with all parties. From Treasury benches, I had said that Parliamentary Affairs Minister represents both government and opposition,” Azad said targeting Naidu.

Insisting that the government’s efforts to take the opposition along was a failure, he recalled that in 1991-96, Congress ran a minority government but still introduced revolutionary changes in the economy. “Congress had the ability to take Opposition along.”