New Delhi:
BJP leaders attacked the UPA on the current economic crisis plaguing the country in a press conference held at the party headquarters. The various bills introduced during the monsoon session of Parliament were also discussed. Here are the highlights:
Sushma Swaraj:- The bills which govt was trying to pass stating 'urgency', we failed to stop those bills as well
- There were few discussions on the economy and on inflation
- As far as bills were concerned- Food Security Bill, Land acquisition and pension bills - these 3 important bills we passed
- But the govt was trying to pass a few bills like the RTI in 'hadbadahat'(hurry)
- They wanted the Judicial appointment bill to be passed in a hurry too. We said we wanted it to be sent to the standing committee.
- When the bill came up in Rajya Sabha, we walked out
- In Lok Sabha, the bill didn't even come up
- We were successful in sending three bills to the standing committee for wider consultations
On Coal storm: - 189 files were missing
- First episode was about the coal files missing scam. In the second episode, the government was trying to cover up the issue. In the third episode, there was a conspiracy to get rid of the evidence
- This is like a daily soap with many events building up.
Arun Jaitley:
- The economy is dipping, there are no solutions, and the govt claims external factors are responsible. But manufacturing is down and there is no foreign investment.
- We tried our best to bring in discussions on economy
- We tried to force a reluctant Prime Minister to answer questions on these topics
- Lack of leadership and corruption- this is all the govt is today
- 'Netritvahinta and corruption'-this is all the govt is today
- The PM says he is not custodian of the coal files and walks out after making a statement
- He knew that the govt has no answers in coal scam and the missing coal files
- It's a govt without credibility
- Our objective was that these two issues- coal scam and missing coal files- be highlighted
- We led the attack on behalf of the country on the issue of missing coal files- the issue was taken up three or four times.
- On nomination of JPC members, we made our protest clear.
- I wrote to the chairman and the government to reconsider as they were fixing JPC numbers to fix report. One extra member matters.