Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan talks to Liz Mathew on the logjam in Lok Sabha.
Lok Sabha continued to get disrupted on Friday. Why have the treasury benches failed to get the Opposition in for a debate?
The government and the Opposition leaders had an understanding that the House will be allowed to run provided the time allotted for the debate on Motion of Thanks to the presidential address is extended.
In Rajya Sabha, the government has agreed to extend it from 10 to 15 hours. The Opposition leaders who attended the meeting had agreed to it.
In Rajya Sabha, they went by the decision, (but) for reasons unknown to us, they took a U-turn in Lok Sabha.
Why do you think the Opposition changed its stance?
It just shows the lack of coordination, lack of leadership and maturity among the Opposition in Lok Sabha. Once you agree to a decision, you have to stand by it and go by it. It looks some outside forces have worked behind it.
Opposition in the Lok Sabha says it wanted to get a five hour slot separately for discussing the farmers’ issue and that the protesting farmers deserve at least that much from Parliament…
In that case, why did they agree for the debate in the meeting? Why have they suddenly changed their minds?
What’s the way out now? Does the government has any proposal to break the stalemate in the Lower House?
The government has made it clear that we are ready to discuss any issue. Farmers issue also could be discussed during the debate and time also has been extended.
In Lok Sabha, the BJP’s defence against the opposition protest looks to be very weak, and the party MPs who always defend its stand aggressively in the house did not seem to be so on this.
It’s not true. The BJP MPs are strongly backing the government’s stand on it. We all are on the same page on it.
There’s no doubt about. It’s the opposition that is divided.
This article is auto-generated by Algorithm Source: indianexpress.com
