Govt doesn’t want discussion on issues it feels would embarrass it, claims Tharoor

PTI, Feb 3, 2023, 2:43 PM IST

The Narendra Modi dispensation has been ”stalling” the Opposition’s demand for discussions on every issue which it feels would embarrass it, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor alleged Friday, slamming the government for ”not allowing” discussion in Parliament on the Adani Group stock rout.

The government, however, insisted that the Opposition should allow the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address immediately by ending disruptions.

”Whatever issues they want to flag, they can during the debate …Passage of the resolution thanking the President for her address to the joint sitting of the two Houses is a priority,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal told PTI video.

Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm on Friday due to protests by opposition members demanding a probe by a joint parliamentary committee into the fraud-allegation-triggered rout in Adani Group company stocks.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP said Parliament is a place to discuss issues facing the nation so that people can see ”the concerns of the MPs and what the MPs are focussing on”.

”Sadly, however, our government doesn’t see the merit of it. So they are stalling (discussions). As a result, now we have lost two days,” he charged.

”All the opposition parties unitedly want to discuss this (Adani Group issue) extremely important issue as it affects the citizens of this country. They believe that this is a matter of sufficient importance that the government should permit,” Tharoor told PTI in Parliament House complex. But the government doesn’t want to discuss any issue that it thinks would embarrass it, he alleged. ”The government didn’t want China (border situation) to be discussed in the last session. It also didn’t want unemployment and price rise to be discussed,” Tharoor claimed.

”I just hope there are some points they will see the merit in coming to an accommodation with the opposition and in working out an arrangement whereby every issue that matters to our public can be discussed,” he added. Another Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil reminded the BJP that it also used to stall parliamentary proceedings when in opposition to press for its demands and said if ”all is well” then the government should not hesitate in forming a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the Adani issue.

After both Houses of Parliament saw disruptions for the second day on Friday, Gohil told PTI outside Parliament House that ”We come for discussion not for disruptions. But when government wants to have its way … when the same BJP was in the opposition its leaders late Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley used to say that not allowing the House to function is a parliamentary tactic and it’s the only weapon with the Opposition … let there be a dialogue and the government should listen to the opposition.” He said people have incurred losses after their money which was invested in LIC, SBI was put by the government ”in its friend’s account”. ”As a responsible opposition, it is our demand to hold a discussion and a joint parliamentary committee be formed. If no wrong has been done, all is well and you do not want to protect the guilty, then what is wrong in having a panel. You will have more members in it. It (JPC report) will make things clear,” he said.