Cong shying away from debate as it has run out of facts and issues: Govt

New Delhi: Hitting out at Congress, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said that the opposition party was not allowing Parliament to function even after the Prime Minister attended the House and accused it of “shying” away from debate as it has run out of facts and issues.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House for the third day as he wanted to participate in the debate but the Opposition, particularly Congress, behaved “irresponsibly” by rushing to the Well of the House.

He accused the Congress of trying to mislead the people but all these things are “boomeranging” on it.

Although the Houses of Parliament witnessing hardly any work since the Winter Session began mid-November, Naidu expressed confidence that all pending bills will get passed during this session.

“The Opposition particularly Congress totally stands exposed. They were saying that PM is not coming to the House and not participating in debate and accused him of giving lectures outside Parliament.”

“This is the third day that PM came to Parliament. He wanted to participate in the debate. We (govt) have also made our intention clear, the PM will not only be present, he will intervene as and when required. At the end, the Finance Minister will reply to the debate,” Naidu said.

He said the Congress was alone in the House today as other parties did not join them in the Well of the House.

“The cat is out of the bag, they have run out of arguments. They are shying away from the debate as they have no issue. They have been exposed. They started creating ‘hungama’. At the end of the day, in the presence of the PM, the House was adjourned.”

“So it clearly proves they have been trying to change the goal post from time to time. By bringing out some reasons or the other, they do not want debate to happen or House to function. They do not have any facts,” he said.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day after Opposition uproar, demanding apology by the PM for certain remarks made against them over demonetisation while the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day due to unabated opposition protests over the same issue.

PTI