Cong dismisses SP's charges on deadlock in House

BJP is subverting Constitution by not allowing Parliament to function: Cong

Congress today dismissed allegations by Samajwadi Party that there is "match-fixing" between the ruling party and the BJP in not allowing Parliament to function and said the opposition is subverting the Constitution by disrupting the House.

"There is neither any mock fight nor any match fixing. Our contention from the very beginning has been that are we creating a precedent where on every issue if some institution says something we do not allow the House to function?," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.

He alleged that the BJP was subverting Constitution by not allowing Parliament to function.

"Parliament is responsible for debating the issues and if somebody does not allow it to function he subverts the Constitution of India and the constitutionality of Parliament...The majesty of Parliament should be restored," Tewari said.

He maintained that the truth will come out only when a debate takes place in Parliament.

"The purpose behind stalling the House is only to prevent the truth from reaching the people and BJP can continue to do its politics based on falsehood, deceit and rumours," he said.

Congress claimed the Chief Ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal had all written letters that there should be no auction of coal and the process of allocation should continue.

The ruling party also said the basis for the entire controversy in Parliament is the CAG report but it has neither been discussed by the PAC yet nor debated in the House.

"The entire controversy over allocation of coal blocks stems out of the CAG report. Without going into the merits of whether the CAG has the constitutional or the legal mandate to conduct the kind of exercises that he has undertaken, the fact remains that the CAG report is a half-way house.It has to be scrutinised by the PAC," Tewari said.

Congress maintained that whether coal block allocations should stay, be cancelled or further reinforced can be determined through the process of a proper inquiry of the CAG report in the PAC, followed by a debate in the House.

"Are we going to set a precedent that every time there is a CAG report which points out one inconsistency or the other we are going to bring the House to a grinding halt," Tewari said.

"I think we should not put the cart before the horse. The first step is that the House should function, a debate must take place and Opposition can make all the points it wants to, the Treasury Benches get an attempt to rebutt it and then whatever crystallises we can take it from there," he said.

Congress emphasised that it is ready to debate the merits of the entire issue of coal block allocation.

"Government is answerable to Parliament and through it to the people. So whatever has to be said should be said in the House," Tewari said.