After bonhomie during nuclear bill, govt and BJP back to sparring

After their bonhomie during the passage of the nuclear liability bill, the government and the BJP were today back to sparring on the issue of achievements in the just-concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj claimed that the BJP compelled the government to either "refer or defer" legislations like Civil Nuclear Bill and Education Tribunal Bill.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, also charged the UPA regime of lacking in coordination and "collective responsibility" and losing its grip on governance.

"For the government it was a refer and defer session. It had to either refer or defer bills. When BJP supported they had to refer the bill to us else they had to defer the bill.

"We succeeded in setting our agenda, putting forward our stand and, when we did not get support of other parties we remained unperturbed and stood our ground," Swaraj said.

Stung by its charge of poor floor management, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal hit back at the BJP accusing it taking a U-turn on several issues.

"The main opposition took a U-turn on several issues. They said something else outside and something else in the House (when some bills were taken up). I leave the definition of floor management to them," he said.

Dismissing charges that the Congress was a divided House as members spoke in different voices on issues like the Education Tribunal Bill, he said 20 bills were passed in the Lok Sabha and another 26 in the Rajya Sabha during the session which speaks volumes of the floor management of the government.

He virtually dared the BJP to show whether so many bills were passed during the NDA regime in any month-long session despite the Congress taking a constructive approach in the passage of the bills.

Jaitley defended the disruptions in Parliament, saying that "parliamentary cooperation, parliamentary opposition and to some extent parliamentary obstructionism are part of legitimate parliamentary politics".

Bansal regretted that the session witnessed the Lok Sabha losing 45 hours and the Rajya Sabha 35 hours due to disruptions. He said what is of particular concern was that the Question Hour could not be taken up for nine days following uproar created by opposition on various issues.