The BJP walked away in protest as the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government refused to yield to BJP demand that discussion on Wikileak cables should get precedence over a debate on the Finance Bill.
What is Wikileaks cables?
Embassies as a matter of duty send periodical reports to their mother country. In this case, senior diplomats from the United States Embassy picked up information talking to journalists, politicians, leading businessmen sent via cables to Washington. The same cables came back to India to become sensational.
The cables, according to Congress could neither verifiable nor authenticated. But for the BJP, this became a huge stick to beat the Government with.
The BJP used this to disrupt and derail parliament reducing to a shortest budget session in the last 20 years with only 23 days of sittings.
Ms Tavleen Singh-a noted UPA Government basher writing in her column in the Indian Express says “On the day that the Finance Minister asked the Lok Sabha to pass his Rs 12.58 lakh crore budget, the BJP walked out because it thought Wikileaks cables were more important” “What about asking the Finance Minister what he has done to ensure proper storage facilities for bumper harvest that is about to come?
How can he allow the NAC to come up with a massive food security scheme without first investing in better storage facilities. What about asking the Finance Minister has taken to stop wasting money on public sector companies like Air-India”. That the BJP believes that these things are not as important as the Wikileaks revelations is beyond belief. The leaked cables reveal only what we know, what has already been discussed in Parliament.”
She goes on to say “ The BJP’s abysmal failure as our main Opposition party, despite seven years of practice, is one of the reasons why the Prime Minister continues to get away with the very bad government he has given us in his second term”. If the performance of the UPA in it second term was bad, that of the BJP as a principal opposition party in Parliament was in fact worse.
The BJP refuses to forget. This Party which promises so much and more much to give to the people of the country is getting discredited with each passing day. The BJP is yet to come to terms with the loss of power in 2004 when Sonia Gandhi single-handedly upstaged the tallest leaders in the Saffron outfit and once more in 2009. BJPs role has been both destructive and disruptive.
The 14th Lok Sabha witnessed unbridled assault on the Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, They simply did not allow him to function. So helpless and disgusted he was, that he wanted tothrown in the towel. but better sense prevailed. And for the first time in the history of parliament of India, a full winter session was washed out because their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee into the 2G Spectrum allocation scam was turned down by the Government. The very same Wikileaks considered as Gospel truth appears to have boomeranged on them.
Hunter is hunted
This time the hunter became the hunted. It is Mr Arun Jaitley. The BJP leader was quoted by an American Embassy official as saying Hindu nationalism was an “opportunistic” issue for the BJP. Congress leaders pounced on the BJP. Mr Kapil Sibal said “For years, we have been speaking about their politics of opportunism, now people should also know the real face of the BJP” Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh HOoda has this to say “the party was using “Hindutva “ only to garner votes . This corroborated Congress stand that the BJP was adopting double standards and that it had nothing to with the interests of the common people”. Springing to the defence of Mr Jaitley, party president Nitin Gadkari said “it is wrong interpretation of the Hindutva issue. Arun Jaitly is a committed leader and such words will never come from his mouth”. “I spoke to Arunji and he denied having said it”.
