Shukla slams BJP for frequently demanding PM's resignation

Union Minister Rajiv Shukla criticised the BJP for "frequently demanding" the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and stalling the Parliament session proceedings.
"BJP has demanded resignation from the Prime Minister 180 times since 2004. If they were obliged then the country by now could have seen 180 PMs in just nine years," Shukla told reporters here last evening.
"The BJP, whose only aim is to disrupt the House proceedings, should learn from former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who became popular in the country because of his speeches instead of creating ruckus in the House," the Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs said.

Answering a question on whether both the Union Ministers -- Pavan Kumar Bansal and Ashwini Kumar -- were forced to resign after Congress President and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's tough stance, he claimed that they resigned on their own.
Defending the former Law Minister in the light of Supreme Court's critical remark that CBI is like a "caged-parrot," he said that Kumar had not made any amendments in the CBI report on coal block allocations scam and had only "corrected some grammatical errors" and its "style of language" in his capacity as the Minister.
He claimed that there was no ban on the Minister for not being able to see such reports.

Shukla said that there was nothing wrong in the direct cash transfer policy to deposit funds directly in the accounts of the beneficiaries to end the system of middlemen, but the Madhya Pradesh government was opposing it.
The Centre would discuss the issue with the state government and appeal it to implement the scheme, he said.
The Minister said that the government has brought Food Security Bill to provide wheat at Rs two per kg, rice at Rs three per kg rice and jowar at Rs one per kg to the people and Land Acquisition Bill to prevent forcible acquisition of farmers' land, but BJP stalled Parliament session as its only aim was to create ruckus in the House.