A day after it settled for a boycott of Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav’s speech after abandoning its strategy to disrupt Parliament, the NDA today vowed to boycott all tainted ministers. Ironically, even as the BJP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj declared a boycott of tainted ministers — ‘‘We will neither put any questions to them nor listen to their answers’’ — senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi delivered a long speech on the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha.The decision to boycott tainted ministers was taken by a five-member team comprising Sushma, Janata Dal (U) leader Nitish Kumar, BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha V.K. Malhotra, Sushil Kumar Modi and S.S. Ahluwalia.While Sushma said the NDA had not ‘‘abandoned’’ its protest but only changed its mode, sources disclosed that most NDA members were against a boycott or disruption of Parliament. ‘‘We have been elected to speak out on the issues concerning the people; why should we boycott them?’’ a Shiv Sena member said at yesterday’s NDA MPs’ meeting. Since all ‘‘tainted’’ ministers belonged to the RJD, no party other than the BJP and JD(U) was keen to take on Laloo.However, it was not possible for the BJP leadership to beat a retreat after a high-pitched protest starting with the disruption of Parliament. Sources said the NDA was more likely to stage a walk-out whenever Laloo got up to speak, a treatment similar to the one meted out to George Fernandes after his re-induction into the A.B. Vajpayee ministry.
