Govt will seek broadbased consensus on all issues: PM

Parties have raised reservations over bills like the Women's Reservation Bill

On a day Narendra Modi dubbed the communal violence bill as a "recipe for disaster", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said government will try to evolve a broadbased consensus on issues which are of "great" legislative importance.

The Prime Minister said government seeks the cooperation of all segments of Parliament to ensure smooth passage of the legislations.

While BJP has voiced strong reservations against the communal violence bill, Samajwadi Party has threatened to disrupt Parliament if controversial bills like the one on Women's Reservation are taken up.

"It will be our effort to evolve a broadbased consensus on all the matters which are of great legislative importance," Singh told reporters outside Parliament House.

He was asked to comment on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate's opposition to the communal violence bill.

The bill, which aims at protecting minorities from targeted attacks, is not on the government's agenda of legislative business to be transacted in the Winter session which began today.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, meanwhile, said government will try to evolve a consensus on the bill. "We will evolve a consensus on the bill," he told reporters just after the Prime Minister spoke on the subject.

BJP has all along opposed the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill. It said it will oppose the legislation when it comes up for discussion in Parliament on the grounds that it would be a "threat to India's communal harmony.