Parliament will not function unless Swaraj, Raje & Chouhan resign or are sacked: Azad

The Congress on Monday made it clear that Parliament will not function in Monsoon session starting Tuesday unless Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chief Ministers Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan resign or are sacked.

In an interview to Karan Thapar in To The Point programme on India Today, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said that unless the government can obtain the resignations of or sack External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan before Parliament starts on Tuesday neither House will function.

Azad said that the decision to disrupt the House would be taken on a day to day basis, but dropped enough hints that the Congress Party would follow the example of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whom he accused of “holding up” the functioning of the House over the 2G issue when  United Progressive Alliance was in power.

“BJP cannot have two yardsticks,” he said adding that the “magnitude of Vyapam and Lalitgate is billion fold more.” Asserting that Congress was ready for a “battle”, Azad called the Vyapam scam, “the grandmother of all scams” and asked “who is responsible for the 40 plus killings? is it the Pakistan army? Is it the ISI? Or is it the naxals?.”

He alleged that never before had India or the world seen a scam where over 40 people who were witnesses or evidence had been quietly killed.

He said that as the representatives of the Indian people they were expressing their concern, shock, anguish and anger that is why the party insisted that these “three heads must roll” before any discussion.

On the land Bill, the Congress leader said his party will not allow the land bill to be passed in Parliament and suggested that it may even prevent the Bill from being tabled for discussion in the Upper House.

There was no way the Congress would compromise on three critical issues— the consent clause, the social impact clause and the clause that determines land will be returned to the farmer if it is unused after five years.

“We cannot allow such an atrocious bill, which is anti-farmer to be passed,” he said.

On the GST on which Congress has given its dissent note, Azad indicated that Congress could show some flexibility if its five key demands are accommodated.

Azad was confident that Congress has got sufficient support from other political parties in the Upper House on the GST issue.

On the Ufa pact with Pakistan, he alleged that the Prime Minister "bungled" and "embarrassed" the nation.