'Unfair' to expect chief minister to resign on forged documents' strength: Jaitley (Update)

After attending an all-party meet here, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that no one should expect a chief minister to resign on the strength of forged documents, and anyone suggesting so, was being completely unfair.

"There is absolutely no basis in comparing what happened in the 2G case and the present case. In the 2G case, the whole issue was debated in Parliament for three days. Thereafter, the CAG report substantiated the allegation of the opposition.

Thereafter, the CBI registered the FIR. It is only then that the then opposition asked for the contracts to be suspended and scrapped and a JPC to go into those allegations," Jaitley told the media here.

"Nothing of this kind has happened at the moment. There is no FIR, there is no chargesheet, no CVC, no CAG, no basis in the allegations which have been made. On the contrary, the allegations against Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the SIT appointed and accepted by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, came to a prima-facie view that the Congress party's papers are forged," he added.

Jaitley further said that to expect a Chief Minister to resign on the strength of forged documents would be completely unfair.

"From the all party meeting it was clear that most political parties want the stalemate to be resolved. Even in the Rajya Sabha, members have tried their best, and these are not only the members supporting the Government, but even most opposition parties, they were finding good reasons to have good debate on some subject or the other. And this went on for an hour," Jaitley said.

"And since that is the overwhelming desire of the members, a small minority should not hold the house to ransom and obstruct the proceedings. The Congress party has ruled this country for a very long time, we expect a certain amount of statesmanship from them," he added.

Jaitley further said that the Congress party should now discuss these issues and if it dissatisfied with the tenure of the discussion then it should make its position clear as the facts are completely in one direction.

"We used the opportunity today, for Sushma Swaraj to make a small intervention in Parliament because for the last two weeks they have been making substantiated allegations and therefore the minister against whose the substantiated allegations are made has a right to respond to those allegations. And that is the right she utilized today," he said.

The Finance Minister's statements comes after an all-party meeting today failed to break the stalemate in Parliament with the government and the opposition sticking to their stands on resignations of top BJP leaders allegedly involved in several controversies.

The meeting was attended by different party leaders including Congress party's Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge, CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav from Samajwadi Party.

From the government side, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu were present.

Almost half of the monsoon session of Parliament has been washed out due to disruptions as opposition parties led by Congress did not allow the business on their demand for resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Lalit Modi controversy and Vyapam scam.