ET Awards' Agenda for Renewal 2011: Opposition's disruptive strokes trigger policy paralysis, say Ministers

An aggressive government has laid the blame for policy paralysis squarely at the door of opposition parties, accusing some of them of political expediency and doublespeak.

Ministers led by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government was ready with many legislations, but continuous disruptions, often for flimsy reasons, of Parliament meant it could not move ahead. “Disruption becomes the name of the game,” said Jairam Ramesh.

“Part of the problem is that you can have an agreement between the main parties..., but disruption can come from any party on any issue. Today you have a distribution of political power in the house where a party of two, or a party of one, can disrupt.” Very often, the ministers said, opposition leaders gave them assurances in private, but failed to honour those in Parliament.

Telecom & human resources development minister Kapil Sibal said that he constantly contacted opposition leaders for inputs on education bills. “They say ‘no problem’... Despite that... they do not allow it to be put on the agenda,” he said.

“We need to think of the nation first and politics later...We need to rise above all this and unfortunately this is not happening in our country,” Sibal added.