Congress seeks deletion of FM’s remarks on Uttarakhand

The Opposition party members, who raised slogans and trooped into the Well of the House at regular intervals disrupting proceedings, demanded delection of Jaitley’s remarks that the ‘real breakdown of constitutional machinery’ had occurred when the presiding officer (Speaker) of the Assembly ‘ignored’ the vote of 35 out of 67 members against the appropriation bill to declare it passed. 

They argued that the remark by Jaitley was akin to questioning the decision of the Speaker.

“The remarks are deplorable and should be deleted,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said when the House reconvened at 2 pm after three adjournments earlier.

“He (Jaitley) has always said the Speaker’s decision is final and cannot be challenged. But then he questions the decision of the Speaker of the (Uttarakhand) Assembly. We cannot accept two understandings,” he said. 

Facing flack over the Uttarakhand crisis, BJP on Tuesday sought to corner Congress over the VVIP chopper scam and Ishrat Jahan issue, alleging that the UPA government stood with LeT to prove a ‘terrorist’ as a nationalist. Union Ministers Arun Jaitley told the MPs that the whole world knew that Ishrat was a ‘terrorist and LeT operative’ but Congress and the then Home Minister P Chidambaram allegedly tried to help her and whitewash the case. 

The Agusta Westland issue was also taken up and the new revelations, he said, had exposed Congress and proved that it was all about scams. The opposition party would have to answer, he said.