Entire Congress politics now about it being recognised or unrecognised opposition: Arun Jaitley

Mocking Congress' demand over the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the entire politics of Congress has now come down to whether it is a recognised opposition or an unrecognised opposition. "The situation of Congress is that now its entire politics has come down to whether its a recognised opposition or unrecognised opposition," Jaitley said in a programme here.

He questioned whether Congress had given the recognition of Leader of Opposition to any political parties from 1952 till most of the time when political parties were short of the majority mark. "From 1952 till most of the time when neither of the opposition political parties had the 55 seats benchmark, did they bother to give the position of Leader of Opposition to the opposition parties. Now they are asking to change the rule," said Jaitley.

He said the previous UPA regime did not have the courage to take decisions. "The previous Congress governments did not have the courage to take decisions, where when you are running a country at times you have to take hard decisions," he said. Jaitley said the decision to raise railway fares was taken by the previous UPA regime and was implemented by the new government. "The decision to raise railway fares was taken by the previous UPA regime, but was withheld till May, when a new government was supposed to come. On May 16, the Railway Board implemented that decision when the results were coming out.

Later on, the then Railway Minister Mallikaarjun Kharge decided to hold back the decision and put it on the BJP government," Jaitley said. "So when the decision was implemented by us then Congress raised questions why the fares are raised. My question is it was the decision taken by Congress, but was implemented by us. Because the question was whether you want to save the railways or not," Jaitley said.