Congress terms opposition's walkout a 'constitutional slur'

Congress today termed as "constitutional slur" the opposition staging a walking out from Lok Sabha during finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's budget presentation.

"It's a constitutional slur. It is the violation of every parliamentary tradition to boycott the Finance Bill. Staging a boycott in this manner when the finance minister is speaking is against the constitutional propriety," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters outside Parliament.

He said opposition's act of staging a walkout in protest against the budget, which was yet to be passed, is entirely wrong as they would have got full time to discuss and debate it.

Tewari also hailed the budget saying the finance minister did a great balancing act and kept the interests of all sections in mind.

Opposition parties, including BJP, Left and SP, staged a walkout from Lok Sabha in protest against proposed changes in duties related to petroleum products.

Asked whether this "unprecedented" walkout points to the consolidation of anti-Congress opposition, Tewari said: "It's jumping the gun".

National Conference leader and Union minister Farooq Abdullah also attacked the opposition for staging a walkout and dubbed it as "hooliganism".

"I oppose the way the Opposition boycotted the budget. They should have listened to it. This could have been debated and it is not done in a democracy. It is complete hooliganism," he said.