The Hindu : National : Left condemns BJP's conduct

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 24, 2006

National

National

Left condemns BJP's conduct

Special Correspondent

Worst kind of Parliamentary terrorism, says Gurudas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI: The Left Parties on Tuesday condemned the attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party to "weaken the Parliamentary system" by obstructing the proceedings of the Lok Sabha on the report of the Privileges Committee.

Objecting to the manner in which the BJP members trooped to the well and stalled the proceedings, they said in the process the House could not discuss several important issues such as price rise, the move to slash interest rates on provident fund, the stock market crash and a scheduled discussion on the Mukherjee Commission report on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's disappearance.

Addressing a press conference, Left leaders including Basudeb Acharia and Rup Chand Pal (CPI-M), Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) and Subroto Bose (AIFB) said the BJP sought to protect a retired Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha, Subhash Kashyap, and also raised slogans against the Speaker.

Describing it as the "worst kind of Parliamentary terrorism," Mr. Dasgupta said attacking the Speaker and linking him to a party was not in good taste. He said the Left parties would be the first to defend the Chair irrespective of the political affiliation of the presiding officer.

"We have reason to believe that Mr. Kashyap is a RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) card holder and on the insistence of the RSS, the BJP was leading its brigade to stall and disrupt Parliament," Mr. Dasgupta said.

The Left leaders said that the BJP had informally said that Mr. Kashyap should not be summoned to the House for admonition.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail