Giving its boycott of Parliament a break for a day to participate in the Lok Sabha debate on the Finance Bill, the NDA will in all probability continue with its protest from tomorrow till the Government changes its ‘‘hostile and vindictive attitude’’ towards the Opposition. But the TDP, an ally of the NDA, has reservations on the continuation of the boycott. The NDA coordination committee, chaired by Leader of Opposition L K Advani, met here tonight to ‘‘convince’’ its Andhra ally to go along with the boycott decision. The NDA, which participated Finance Bill discussion to ‘‘demonstrate its commitment to parliamentary duties’’, targeted the Prime Minister for not dumping ‘‘tainted ministers’’. An NDA resolution adopted at the parliamentary party meeting this morning stated ‘‘let Dr Manmohan Singh himself judge whether what he is doing is morally tenable.’’ TDP leader Yerran Naidu, who attended the morning meeting, did not show up at the coordination committee meeting. TDP MPs, sources said, were not in favour of a boycott as ‘‘it goes against democratic norms.’’ They were also against the on-off boycott. ‘‘A boycott becomes meaningless if you choose to attend Parliament one day and refuse to do so on another day,’’ TDP sources said. ‘‘The nation has seen that the Government is adamant on not dropping the tainted ministers. So there’s no point in prolonging this boycott. It is not advisable for such a long time, it will go against us,’’ TDP sources maintained. But BJP spokesman V K Malhotra told The Indian Express tonight that the boycott will continue ‘‘for the time being’’. At a meeting to review the decision this morning, NDA leaders felt that the Government had shown no signs of meeting their demand. Although the Prime Minister spoke to leaders of Opposition in both Houses (Advani and Jaswant Singh) as well as NDA chairperson Atal Behari Vajpayee and asked them to return to Parliament, it did not cut much ice. In its resolution, the NDA said, ‘‘These calls have been no more than a mere formality on the part of the Prime Minister. They have failed to provide any assurance to us that there would be a change in the approach of the Government towards the Opposition. Matters remain where they were on April 27, 2005.’’ Significantly, the resolution made it clear that the resignation of Laloo Prasad Yadav was no longer the main demand of the Opposition. While accusing the Government of ‘‘setting a new and absolutely unacceptable norm of political conduct’’ by allowing ‘‘tainted ministers’’ to continue, it said, ‘‘Let Dr Manmohan Singh himself judge whether what he is doing is morally tenable.’’ ‘‘It is the Government’s casual and confrontationist attitude towards the Opposition, however, that we cannot accept under any circumstances.’’ Meanwhile, apart from the PM’s phone calls, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad also indulged in some ‘‘apricot diplomacy’’. He sent baskets of the fruit to a number of key NDA leaders, including Vajpayee and Advani. When they called up to thank him for the gift, Azad used the opportunity to ask them to return to Parliament. But that didn’t work.
