Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh at the Congress protest outside Parliament last week. (Press Trust of India photo)
New Delhi:
The Congress returns to the Lok Sabha today after a five-day boycott to protest against the suspension of 25 of its lawmakers last week.
There are only four days left of the Monsoon Session, which has been so far been squandered to the Congress' insistence that Parliament will not function till three top BJP leaders are removed. It has not budged an inch from that position.
A strong rejection of that demand came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday when he lavished much praise on two of those leaders - Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje - at an election rally in Bihar.
"Rajasthan was called a BIMARU (sick) state, but no longer. Under Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan has scaled new heights," said the PM.
He had similar endorsement for the governance of Mr Chouhan. "Madhya Pradesh elected a BJP government... in just 10 or 12 years under Shivraj Chouhan, Madhya Pradesh is no longer a sick state," he asserted, comparing development in the two BJP ruled states to Bihar, where the Janata Dal United is in power under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
PM Modi's comments were clearly intended as much as a message to the chief Opposition Congress in Delhi, as an indictment of the Nitish Kumar government in election-bound Bihar.
In its protests demanding the removal of the two BJP chief ministers and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, the Congress has repeatedly demanded that the Prime Minister "break his silence."
While the Congress has targeted Ms Swaraj and Ms Raje for having helped tainted cricket boss Lalit Modi, they want Mr Chouhan to quit over the massive Vyapam recruitment scam in his state.
Caught in the battle between the two sides is crucial economic agenda, including a key bill that gives effect to the Goods and Services Tax or GST. If the bill is not passed in this session, the rollout of the tax reform will be set back by a year, the government has warned.
There are only four days left of the Monsoon Session, which has been so far been squandered to the Congress' insistence that Parliament will not function till three top BJP leaders are removed. It has not budged an inch from that position.
A strong rejection of that demand came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday when he lavished much praise on two of those leaders - Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje - at an election rally in Bihar.
"Rajasthan was called a BIMARU (sick) state, but no longer. Under Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan has scaled new heights," said the PM.
He had similar endorsement for the governance of Mr Chouhan. "Madhya Pradesh elected a BJP government... in just 10 or 12 years under Shivraj Chouhan, Madhya Pradesh is no longer a sick state," he asserted, comparing development in the two BJP ruled states to Bihar, where the Janata Dal United is in power under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
PM Modi's comments were clearly intended as much as a message to the chief Opposition Congress in Delhi, as an indictment of the Nitish Kumar government in election-bound Bihar.
In its protests demanding the removal of the two BJP chief ministers and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, the Congress has repeatedly demanded that the Prime Minister "break his silence."
While the Congress has targeted Ms Swaraj and Ms Raje for having helped tainted cricket boss Lalit Modi, they want Mr Chouhan to quit over the massive Vyapam recruitment scam in his state.
Caught in the battle between the two sides is crucial economic agenda, including a key bill that gives effect to the Goods and Services Tax or GST. If the bill is not passed in this session, the rollout of the tax reform will be set back by a year, the government has warned.
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