New Delhi, December 31: As the ruling Congress locked horns with the principal Opposition, the SW, on Friday over midnight mayhem in the Rajya Sabha when the Upper House discussed the Lokpal , the side players – UPA allies as well as opponents – also joined in the mud- slinging.
Despite claims by senior Congress leaders any diffirences over the Lokpal Bill will be sorted out with key UPA ally, the Trinamool Congress, the Namata Banerjee- led party made it clear on Friday that it was not ready to play ball.” We are very very sad… government handled it very badly. What happened yesterday was a caricature; Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien said.
Brien told a news channel that Trinamool 1.1Ps had made clear their opposition to the Lokayukta section or Part 3 of the Bill before the Parliamentary standing committee, where the Bill was discussed and reviewed between August and December.” It was pretty apparent that states still did not have the autonomy they were looking for. We didn’t get what we were promised. So, we decided to move the amendment in the Rajya Sabha: he said.
LTD DIP Rajniti Prasad , who was seen tearing a copy of Lokpal Bill in the House, rejected claims that his party was involved in ‘ match- fixing with the ruling benches. The volatile PIP said there was no deal between the Congress and the RJD to scuttle voting on the legislation and that he had reacted only in the heat of the moment. His party colleague Ramkripal Yadav echoed similar views.
Since the government did not give any satisfactory reply to our queries regarding reservation in the selection committee, we could not resist ourselves and staged the protest; Yadav said. But the claims by the RJD liPs found a few takers. The CP11 accused the ruling UPA constituent Trinamool and the RJD, which supports it from outside, of helping in the strategy to “sabotage the legislation.
The government is squarely responsible for not passing the Bill. The MC and RJD helped the government in its strategy to sabotage the Bill; senior CP11 leader Sitaram Yechury said.
The Telugu Desam Party accused the government of leaving the Lokpal Bill ” orphaned”.” It was the bounden duty of P11 and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to put a strong and effective Lokpal in place: party president N. Chandrababu Naidu said in Hyderabad.
–Agencies–