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Journalism of Courage
Ratcheting up their campaign against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s alleged ‘‘unbecoming conduct’’ by several notches, the BJP-led NDA boycotted the last day of the Budget Session of Parliament today and fielded its premier leader Atal Behari Vajpayee to target the Prime Minister.
In a statement released at the end of a meeting of MPs belonging to the NDA, Vajpayee said: ‘‘I have been in Parliament for close to five decades now— for most of the times in the Opposition. However, never have I seen a time when a Prime Minister has lost his temper at the leaders of the Opposition and refused to even accept a memorandum from them.’’
However, towards the end of his statement, Vajpayee—in almost identical words used by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inside Parliament—called for a “constructive dialogue” in the inter-session period. “Let both the Government and Opposition shoulder their respective responsibilites to ensure that the next session of Parliament becomes more productive,” Vajpayee said.
Saying that he had regards for Manmohan Singh as a person, Vajpayee added that Singh ‘‘does not seem to be aware of the unwritten code of political conduct that should guide the interaction between the Prime Minister aand senior leaders of the Opposition.’’ Vajpayee also said that submitting memoranda to the Prime Minister was a normal practice and recalled ‘‘many such instances during the NDA government when Congress and other Opposition leaders came to me and submitted memoranda.’’
In fact, the Opposition had taken a decision not to participate in the debate on the Finance Bill, and had been trying to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister in lieu of moving amendments in the floor of the House.
Vajpayee also confirmed that the Prime Minister had indeed phoned L.K. Advani last evening ‘‘to express regrets and to say that he did not mean to offend the NDA delegation.’’
However, statements made by ‘‘spokesmmen of the government and the ruling coalition” did not reflect the “forgive-and-forget” message of the Prime Minister, leading to today’s boycott. Vajpayee also said he was “baffled” that while the Prime Minister did not accept the NDA memorandum, he had a detailed discussion with leaders of the Left parties last evening and the finance minister “made certain pronouncements before the media on the issues raised by the Left parties on the Finance Bill.” Vajpayee’s statement was viewed with some suprise in government circles because he had not been part of the delegation that met Manmohan Singh yesterday and has largely kept aloof from the growing bitterness between the opposition and the government both inside and outside Parliament.
Sources in government claimed that Vajpayee had been “wrongly briefed” by his colleagues and persuaded to address the press. In light of these sentiments, a direct chat between the former and present Prime Minister could be on the cards in the coming days.
For the BJP, fielding Vajpayee was crucial to give the campaign legitimacy, party sources confirmed. ‘‘Atalji speaks rarely but when he speaks, the entire country listens,’’ a BJP functionary said.
In his verbal interaction with the press, Vajpayee refuted the widespread charge that the BJP was a bad loser. He said though “we did not win the elections, we happily (khushi khushi se) accepted the verdict.’’
He also claimed that the opposition had offered full cooperation ‘‘but it seems that the government does not want our cooperation or wants it at a price.’’
