PM makes fresh push for truce; House stalemate on

Vibha Sharma

Dec 6 2014 

The Opposition successfully stalled proceedings in the Rajya Sabha for the fourth consecutive day today while Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to their Lok Sabha members, asking them to be generous and accept the apology made by Niranjan Jyoti over her derogatory remarks.

The Prime Minister’s appeal, citing her rural and social background (Dalit as the BJP claims while the Opposition maintains she is an OBC), her "inexperience" as a parliamentarian and his own strong disapproval of her language, failed to impress his opponents in the Lok Sabha. “It is the duty of the distinguished members of the House that when a colleague seeks apology, we should be magnanimous,” the Prime Minister said in what was almost a repeat of his statement in the Upper House yesterday.

But Opposition members, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who had covered their mouths with black cloth as a sign of protest, staged a walkout.

But there was perceptible melt-down in the Opposition’s resistance against the “abusive” minister. In fact, senior Opposition leaders in the Rajya Sabha talked of “scaling down” their demand for her resignation. They said they were willing to settle for a joint resolution condemning the remarks of the newly inducted Union Minister who otherwise deserved “outright removal”. Derek ’O Brien of the Trinamool Congress said the Opposition’s intention was clear — to run the House as in the past two days five Bills were passed by the House. “We have scaled down our demand. Just pass the resolution, don’t be so arrogant and adamant,” he advised the government.

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said: “We are not interested in disrupting the House business.” Charging the government with forcing a stalemate in the House, Congress leader Anand Sharma said the Opposition had listened to the Prime Minister and collectively taken a considered view to “ask for a resolution... It is up to the government to restore the dignity of the House. This is unreasonableness of the government which has forced stalemate in the House”.