Parliamentary logjam well thought out strategy of Congress: MoS Ram Shankar Katheria

LUDHIANA: The "Parliamentary logjam" in the Monsoon session was part of a "well thought out strategy" of the Congress party to "sabotage" the development plans of the NDA government, Union minister Ram Shankar Katheria said here today.

In a BJP protest rally, a part of the party's campaign to "expose the designs" of Congress in not allowing the Parliament to function, Union Minister of State for HRD Katheria said the government and the Speaker made four serious attempts to sort out the matters.

But the adamant behaviour of the Congress party did not allow these attempts to succeed and it was "murder of democracy", he charged.

The issue of the resignations of two Chief Ministers - Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan - and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj was only an excuse, Katheria said.

The real intention was to disrupt the proceedings of the House so that no development-oriented bill including GST could be passed, he said.

Talking about his party's role when they were in opposition, Katheria claimed they always allowed passage of important bills and never carried the logjam so long.

While defending the suspension of 25 Congress MPs from LS, he said this was not a murder of democracy, rather it was an effort to "save the democracy" from being murdered.

Later talking to media, he said the Akali-BJP alliance in Punjab and at the Centre would continue in times to come.

"Any hiccup could always be solved though a dialogue across the table," he said.