PM Narendra Modi hails Mulayam's support to end logjam in Parliament

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hit out at Congress for "misusing" Parliament to stop the country's growth and hailed SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for "understanding this conspiracy" and working to end the logjam in the House.

Addressing the last scheduled BJP parliamentary party meet in the Monsoon session, Modi spoke of "some people", a reference to top Congress brass, who are working to stall economic growth, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters after the meeting.

"The Prime Minister said a message has gone out as the session draws to a close that there are some people who are using misusing Parliament to stop the pace of country's development. Their main goal is to stop the economic growth.

"He expressed his gratitude to those, especially Muyalayam Singh Yadavji, and all those parties who have felt that this is a conspiracy to stop the country's progress. He hailed them and asked the party and members to do so as well," Rudy said quoting Modi.

The SP supremo yesterday broke ranks with the opposition which has been agitating in Parliament over the Lalit Modi row and the Vyapam scam, saying, "Enough is enough... We will not back you if you keep protesting."

This came as a surprise to Congress as Yadav had last week extended his party's support to Congress after 25 of its members were suspended by the Speaker.

Congress had sarcastically dubbed the SP supremo as 'Khudai Khidmatgar', which implies that a person is more loyal than the king himself.

"If Yadav had any plan or was wanting to mediate, he should have talked to the Congress and should not have gone about the way he had gone," a Congress leader had said.

Rudy said Modi also asked members to take up the promotion of social welfare and security schemes launched by his government as a campaign between Independence Day on August 15 and Rakshabandhan, which is later this month, as they can be of big help to the poor.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke about the GST bill, which the government is trying hard to pass in this session.

Modi said the pension and insurance schemes launched by the government and the Mudra bank can go a long way in helping the poor and asked members to promote these schemes in a big way among them.

BJP has singled out Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi for the impasse in both the Houses, saying not many leaders in the opposition parties want to stall work but the top leaders have been "stubborn".