No agreement with opposition to send bills to select committee: Javadekar

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday that there was no agreement with the opposition parties on sending some contentious bills pending in the Rajya Sabha to select committee of the House.

"This is absolutely untrue, there was a demand from opposition parties. There was no agreement," Javadekar said during a media briefing on decisions of the union cabinet.

He was responding to a question about remarks of Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that the opposition had been kept in the dark about the triple talaq bill.

Javadekar said many bills in the upper House had been sent to standing committees or select committee.

He said standing committees had not yet been constituted as many parties have not given their names. He also said nearly half of the bills being sought to be passed are those which had lapsed as these could not be passed in Rajya Sabha.

"The lapsed bills are coming again. The bills that were pending for two years, people were waiting for justice," he said.

Answering another query, he said the government had not ditched the opposition and said the leader making such remarks should see where he had been ditched.

Azad had alleged that the central government "cheated" to push the triple talaq bill through Rajya Sabha.

He said the government first asked the Opposition to give a list of bills to be sent to the select committee and triple talaq bill was on top priority.

"I accuse that on Monday night, the government had clandestinely sent the bill to be put up before Rajya Sabha for discussion. While the opposition MPs were informed about it on Tuesday morning. No opposition party got the chance to issue three-line whip," Azad said.