Dattatreya blames Cong for House logjam; also slams Owaisi

Union Minister and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya today accused Congress and its allies of disrupting Parliament and slammed AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi for speaking in support of Yakub Memon, sentenced to death in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Noting that Opposition parties have a responsibility to debate on different issues in Parliament, he said their stand amounted to doing a disservice to the people.
The Congress and other parties disrupted Parliament throughout last week over the Lalit Modi and Vyapam issues, in which Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and her Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan are in the dock.

"As the ruling party, we are ready for any debate. Congress adopted double standards as its Chief Ministers did not resign when they faced allegations," he said while talking to reporters here.
He gave the examples of allegations levelled against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his Uttarakhand counterpart Harish Rawat.
"(Congress leaders) Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are making this (resignations of BJP Ministers) a prestige issue. This is politically ill-motivated and I condemn this," he said.

Talking about the Yakub Memon issue, he said it should neither be linked to religion nor given a political colour.
"It is regrettable that those like Asaduddin Owaisi speak in support of Yakub Memon. Being a Member of Parliament and being a citizen of India, it is unfortunate if you speak in support of terrorism," he added.

"Asaduddin Owaisi does not have any love for Yakub Memon. Those giving letter in support of Yakub Memon, the pseudo-secularists, also do not have any love for Yakub Memon. The comments of pseudo secularists help terrorists and those who help terrorists," Dattatreya said.
The Union Minister also condemned the terror attack in Gurdaspur district of Punjab today in which seven persons, including an SP was killed while all the terrorists were gunned down after a day-long operation.
Referring to a group of child labourers being rescued in Hyderabad yesterday, Dattatreya said he would hold a meeting with the Ministers of States like Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha on the problem of child and migrant labour in those states.

He appealed to Telangana Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao to address the problems of municipal workers, who went on a strike recently, with magnanimity.