Expressing deep ‘‘anguish’’ over the bitter political controversy swirling around him, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today that he hopes ‘‘processes’’ will be put in place—before the next session—to ensure that Parliament isn’t paralysed by bitter partisan politics.
But Singh also made it clear that to blame him for the latest deadlock was unfair, to say the least.
Speaking to The Indian Express in Parliament’s Central Hall today, he recounted yesterday’s sequence of events—in sharp variance with the NDA version—to suggest that he had played fair and he was no pushover.
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‘‘I received them at the door,’’ Singh said about the L K Advani-led delegation that had come to see him yesterday, adding, ‘‘unlike other Prime Ministers, I receive all my visitors at the door. It’s not true that they were there for only two and a half minutes. They were there for 15 minutes. Tea was ordered for them but they did not have it. The appointment was given at half-an-hour’s notice. It was given for two leaders (L K Advani and Jaswant Singh, leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha). But seven of them showed up. It took a few minutes to arrange the chairs in the room. They sat down and we were discussing. Then George Fernandes said we have brought this for you and gave the memorandum.’’ ‘‘I told them you don’t want a discussion in Parliament but you want these changes,’’ Singh said. ‘‘This is not acceptable to me. The forum for discussing this is Parliament and not the PMO. The Finance Bill has been printed. Even if we wanted to, we cannot incorporate these amendments. But if you want a discussion, I told them, we are ready even now to have it and extend the Parliament session.’’ ‘‘Why should I play into their hands?’’said Singh, ‘‘and do what they want me to do? Their real purpose was to go out and tell their constituency that they had raised those issues.’’
On whether he had thrown the memorandum back at the Opposition leaders, the PM said: ‘‘I put the memorandum on the table. I intended no discourtesy, that is why I called up Advaniji later and told him this. But the situation was unacceptable to me (that Opposition leaders should disrupt Parliament and refuse to discuss financial business and then come to him and seek amendments in the Finance Bill).”
The Prime Minister appeared deeply unhappy at the way Parliament has been prevented from functioning since he took office. ‘‘For three months, they have been disrupting the Houses. They did not allow me even to introduce my ministers, they did not allow me to speak on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address. And now they have not allowed a discussion on the vital financial business of the country.’’ At the valedictory functions in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha before both Houses were adjourned sine die, a week before the Budget session was slated to end, Singh said: ‘‘We will set into motion processes to ensure that what has happened is truly a thing of the past.’’ Expressing his “sadness” at the turn of events, he said it was “not for want of trying” by him and his government that Parliament had not functioned. “We have tried sincerely to seek the cooperation of all sections.” People, he said, send MPs to Parliament to ensure that money is spent wisely and that the tax proposals accord with people’s priorities. Politics, he said, requires a great deal of “patience, tact and understanding” and Parliament provided a mechanism to reconcile divergences.
But when Parliament is not allowed to play this role, ‘‘this is something to worry about’’ and it does not ‘‘augur well for the future of democracy and the parliamentary system.’
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