Congress hits back at Mahesh Sharma over his 'no work, no pay' remark

NEW DELHI: Congress today hit back at Union Minister Mahesh Sharma for his suggestion of 'no work, no pay' policy over logjam in Parliament, saying such views were "wrong" as Congress MPs were "working hard".

"We are working. We have standing committee meetings, I have a select committee meeting on land tomorrow and also a standing committee meeting on health. Therefore, it is wrong to say MPs are not working. MPs are working hard," Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh told reporters here, when asked about it.

Sharma had yesterday said in Varanasi that there is a suggestion for applying 'no work, no pay' policy on MPs like it is being done with regard to bureaucrats, triggering a debate after which he went into a denial mode.

In its reaction, BJP today said there was no such proposal before the government but the government would not mind discussing the issue.

"Government would not mind discussion on 'no work no pay' issue. But as of now there is no such matter before the government," Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here.

Blaming the BJP-led government for ongoing logjam in Parliament, Ramesh said there has been no change in their stand of "no resignation, no discussion".

The party, which is cornering the government on the Lalit Modi and Vyapam controversies, is demanding the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

"We are not alone in Parliament. We are being supported by the Left parties, JD-U and several others," Ramesh said.

"Questions were raised for how may days we can run it (our demand) but from day one we are saying resignation first and discussion later," he added.

Talking about Congress Parliamentary Party meeting tomorrow morning, he said the party's stand would become clear in the speech of president Sonia Gandhi.

He reminded of the stand taken by BJP five years ago when they said Parliamentary disruption is a "legitimate tactic".