No resignations over Lalit Modi, Vyapam scam: Government

The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday reasserted that union minister Sushma Swaraj and two BJP chief ministers will not resign over the Lalit Modi controversy and Vyapam scam and termed opposition allegations on the issues as "baseless".

"We have decided to give a befitting reply to the misinformation campaign on these issues and BJP parliamentarians have been asked to strongly counter the opposition," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters after a meeting of the BJP parliamentary party.

Naqvi said the opposition was attacking the NDA government "out of desperation as it had no issues to raise against the Centre".

The opposition, particularly the Congress, was not interested in holding discussions (in parliament) and only wanted to disrupt the proceedings of both the Houses of parliament, Naqvi said.

Pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke at the meeting, Naqvi said, "The prime minister told the BJP parliamentarians that they should be proud of his government's work for the betterment of the poor. He also asked the parliamentarians to take all government initiatives for the country's development to the people."

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Sushma Swaraj gave her views at the parliamentary party meeting and satisfied all party parliamentarians through her logic.

"We want the whole country to hear her logic (in parliament)," Jaitley told mediapersons.

Taking a dig at the Congress, Jaitley said, "Yesterday (Tuesday), the opposition was ready to discuss the matter but today they have started demanding an inquiry. Inquiry is done only when some legal provisions are violated as was done in the 2G spectrum case."

He said the opposition was lacking in facts and that's the reason it was shying away from a parliamentary discussion.

BJP president Amit Shah also addressed the meeting and appealed to the party's members of parliament to educate the people about the work done by the government in the last one year, sources said.