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Journalism of Courage
The mild-mannered Manmohan Singh today received the rather unlikely sobriquet of “rudest Prime Minister ever” from enraged Opposition leaders for his refusal to accept their ‘‘suggestions and comments’’ on the Finance Bill, injecting yet more vitriol in the progressively deteriorating discourse between the UPA government and the BJP-led opposition.
While the NDA accused the prime minister of being “impolite and discourteous”, the government said Manmohan Singh only pointed out that the Opposition should have put forward its suggestions in course of the debate on the Finance Bill and not in this form.
The Prime Minister, who has already expressed his unhappiness at the Opposition’s repeated disruption of Parliament, reiterated his views to the Opposition delegation.
The opposition had a different version of events. According to them, a seven-member NDA delegation comprising six BJP leaders and George Fernandes went to meet the Prime Minister in his office in Parliament House at 12.45 pm to hand over a note on the Finance Bill.
The prime minister refused to accept it and “threw it on the table” and also ‘‘refused to listen to us when Advaniji tried to explain the situation to him,’’ Fernandes told reporters in the afternoon.
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‘‘I have seen prime ministers for the last 50 years but have never experienced such behaviour till today,’’ Fernandes claimed.
Denying the charge of rudeness, Parliamentary Affairs minister Ghulam Nabi Azad—who along with Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram was present at the meeting—said the prime minister only said the Opposition ought to have participated in the discussion on the Finance Bill instead of taking a decision to disrupt or boycott proceedings.
Although Azad did not spell it out, sources confirmed that Singh was fairly critical of the Opposition’s continuous disruption of Parliament since he took over as Prime Minister (he was not allowed to reply to the motion of thanks to the President’s address, the Railway Budget was passed amid pandemonium, and now the Finance Bill was being passed without discussion) and made his exasperation obvious.
BJP leaders who have portrayed Singh as a rubber-stamp prime minister were taken aback by his stern tone and have therefore taken such umbrage, sources said.
Today’s unseemly spat may lead to more fireworks with the NDA leaders slated to meet tomorrow morning to decide “what action we should take in Parliament”, BJP parliamentary party spokesman V K Malhotra said.
BJP sources said NDA leaders led by Advani and Fernandes were “very upset” with the Prime Minister’s behaviour and wanted to take some action in response. Whether this will mean a change in their strategy to allow the passage of the Finance Bill “without disruption” will be known tomorrow.
The BJP has already said unless their three demands—restoration of Savarkar’s plaque, unconditional withdrawal of the case against Uma Bharati, and removal of “tainted ministers” from the government—are met, they will not allow Parliament to function. They may add fresh demands such an apology from the PM for his “rudeness.”
