BJP thwarts Congress's plan to get House spotlight on Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Concerns expressed by political heavyweights, including President Pranab Mukherjee and BJP veteran L K Advani, could not end the logjam in Parliament as the ruling BJP which had so far protested against disruptions decided against allowing Rahul Gandhi airtime before a four-day break.
Sources said while BJP was keen on resumption of proceedings, it switched the tactic after seeing Congress reversing its course to field Rahul as the hitter.The sudden change led the BJP strategists to suspect that Rahul could be seeking to “hijack” the proceedings before the two Houses went into a break. They wanted to prevent him from latching on to President’s criticism of MPs disrupting proceedings. “They (Congress) did a Uturn by agreeing to debate without division because their plan was to disrupt the proceedings once their leader had given his speech as also after the two Houses reassembled following the 4-day break, thus ensuring that Rahul’s allegations played on for four days without we getting the opportunity to respond,” said a senior BJP MP.
BJP members disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha on Friday to demand that the opposition apologise to President Mukherjee. Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar justified BJP’s tactic by saying that rules of procedure make it clear that a member ought to wait till he gets his turn to speak. The Congress vice-president had responded to the disruptions by BJP by saying that he was being thwarted and asserting that he would set off tremors when he gets the opportunity to speak. “It is parliament of India... Not a Congress forum. Rahul Gandhi can’t speak in Parliament at his will. There are certain rules that every member has to follow,” Kumar said soon after Rahul’s remark.
Kumar said most of Congress’ demands had been accepted and BJP repeatedly assured that PM Narendra Modi will intervene and the finance minister will reply on demonetization. “The issue is of national interest and there must have been a discussion in the Parliament. But Congress and the TMC leaders didn’t let it happen,” he said.