Govt attacks oppn for Parliament washout

NEW DELHI: Going on the offensive, Government today made a stinging attack on the opposition for the washout of the winter session, virtually singling out BJP for paralysing Parliament saying it did "not have the courage" to move a no confidence motion.

As the month-long session adjourned sine die, a bitter Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal at a press conference took on the opposition squarely, saying BJP's "unholy alliance" with the Left was to destabilise the government.

Especially targeting the BJP, he said it had launched from time to time "a smear campaign" against the Congress by using JPC like the one on the Bofors issue and said the demand for such a probe in the 2G issue was "most untenable".

"My charge against BJP is that they could not have got courage to move a no confidence motion. They had the ulterior motive of paralysing the government," he shot back when asked to react to BJP veteran L K Advani's charge that government was threatening opposition with a mid-term poll.

At the same time, he indicated that the Government would again hold discussions with the opposition to resolve the deadlock. "In a democracy, dialogue has to continue. We will not mind. But none planned so far......We hope that having gone so far they would see the reason."

He said that the opposition would be responsible if they carry forward the deadlock to the budget session and if the budget was not passed creating a constitutional crisis. "Do they not understand that passage of budget is so necessary for the country?"

He said that since there was "no ground" for having a Joint Parliamentary Committee, the main opposition party could have moved a no confidence motion against the Manmohan Singh Ministry and "we could not have right to oppose" such a move.

Seeking to puncture the opposition claim that government was violating rules by opposing JPC, he said no rules are being violated. He instead charged the opposition with dealing a "blow" to parliamentary democracy.

"Democracy is subverted by people who are supposed to be the guardians of democracy", he said adding it was the responsibility of the opposition too to see that Parliament functions.