The BJP top brass on Thursday met President Pratibha Patil seeking her intervention for reconvening of the Parliament session to enable voting on the Lokpal Bill in Rajya Sabha. Accusing the government of “complete subversion” of Parliament, the delegation led by BJP parliamentary party chairman L.K. Advani, party chief Nitin Gadkari and leaders of Opposition in both Houses Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, also handed over a memorandum to the President seeking a special Parliament session.
The BJP charged the government with deliberately paralysing Parliam-entary proceedings and “contrived disturbances” on the last day of the extended Winter Session to escape the crucial vote on the Lokpal Bill as it lacked a majority in the Rajya Sabha. “We have sought the President’s intervention and expressed our grievance and dissatisfaction on the events that took place in Rajya Sabha on the night of December 29,” Mr Advani said after meeting the President.
The BJP memorandum stated that “this incident has left a blot on India’s parliamentary democracy and the nation looks up to you to restore the credibility of India’s Parliament.”
It further states that “when such a breakdown of the constitutional machinery takes place, the President as a protector and guardian of Indian Constitution must act”.
“The President could advise the government to reconvene the Session and immediately take a vote. The Government must be asked to explain the reasons why the House was disturbed through such contrived disturbances,” reads the statement In its memorandum, the BJP stated that the government benches “engineered” disturbances, initially through a friendly party and subsequently by its own members and these disturbances were “contrived” to earn an adjournment so that a voting could be avoided. “The effort to avoid a vote through contrived disturbances is a clear subversion of parliamentary democracy”, the BJP memorandum states.