This Article is From Jul 31, 2015

All-Party Meet Fails to Resolve Parliament Logjam, Congress Takes Tough Stand

All-Party Meet Fails to Resolve Parliament Logjam, Congress Takes Tough Stand

File photo of Mallikarjun Kharge

New Delhi: An all-party meeting held to break the logjam in Parliament proved unsuccessful today, but the government has indicated that another meeting could be held. The meeting was convened by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in the wake of the Congress protests and unruly scenes in the House on Monday.

"We are sticking to our demand. The government has to take a call," said senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, whose party has been clamouring for the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

"Rajnath Singh was present (at the meeting)," Mr Kharge added. "He heard our view points and said the government will try to hold another meeting at some point."

Sittings have not been held in Parliament for two days following the death of President APJ Abdul Kalam on Monday evening. Today both houses were adjourned early.

Monday's session had been marred by intense protests by the Congress. Following a demonstration with placard by Congress lawmaker Adhir Ranjan Choudhury at her table, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had to suspend him for the rest of the day.

Today, Ms Mahajan said, "There is rule book and it should be followed. It was not made by the Speaker. The Opposition should raise the issues under the rules and not display placards."

But Mr Kharge made it clear that there would be no let-up in the protests. It was the government's responsibility to run the House, he said, and assailed the treasury benches for not reaching out to the opposition even once since the monsoon session began on July 21.

BJD's Tathagata Satpathy accused the government of abdicating its responsibility, applauding at the same time the "perseverance" of the Speaker to run the House smoothly.

NCP's Tariq Anwar was also critical of the government for not initiating any dialogue with the opposition to address the issues raised by it. P Karunakaran of the CPI-M said the government should address the issues raised by them.
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