COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Parliament: Opposition flays government over economic situation and price rise

The entire opposition in the Rajya Sabha today staged a walkout in protest against Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha's unsatisfactory reply on the price rise issue made on a calling attention motion.

The Opposition members, particularly members belonging to the Left parties, were keen to know from the government what measures it had planned to check the spiralling price rise in the essential commodities.

Earlier, the finance minister while making a clarification said the government was determined to take strong measures to check the price hike.

He said the current phase of price rise was due to several factors, the most important being the failure of rabi crops and early varieties of rice. He said normally these rice crops start coming to the market by July-August but this year the failure of these crops caused a rise in prices.

Sinha further said that the prolonged winter this year, heavy late winter rains followed by excessive heat further damaged the crops. As a result the production of potato has declined by six million tonnes, onions by 600,000 tonnes and oilseeds by 1.3 million tonnes. Besides, the production of pulses was also affected. Pulses alone accounted for nearly two to three per cent rise in the inflation rate, he added.

Congress members led by their leader Manmohan Singh walked out of the Rajya Sabha when the former finance minister was not allowed to express his concern about the deteriorating economic situation and price rise during zero hour.

Soon after the question hour, Singh got up to say that prices of all essential commodities had risen after the Bharatiya Janata Party government had come to power. The prices of some commodities had gone up by as much as 60 per cent in the past three months.

Stressing that it had happened because of gross financial mismanagement, he said the economic situation in the country was serious and this should be the matter of concern for all of us.

BJP members objected to Singh being allowed to say on the price rise when the house was taking up the calling attention motion on the subject notice of which he himself had given and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha was here to respond to the calling attention.

The Congressmen however insisted that Singh, who is Leader of the Opposition in the house, be allowed to speak. According to the convention, Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition are allowed to speak anytime they wanted to, Pranab Mukherjee (Congress) pointed out.

Singh said the current inflation was due to all-round failure of the government which had total lack of control on finance. While tax revenue was stagnant, borrowings were increasing. Nobody would believe the government's claim about fiscal deficit, he said.

The BJP members again protested Singh's continuing his speech and noisy scenes prevailed in the house with heated exchange of words between the Congress and the BJP members. Amid din, Singh left the house in protest, followed by all Congress members.

The walk-out amid slogan-shouting came in two instalments.

The entire Opposition today staged a walk out in the Lok Sabha demanding the resignation the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government for its failure to control prices of essential commodities and the breakdown of law and order in the country.

The Congress which is the main Oppostion, and the Indian Union Muslim League trooped out of the house after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sharad Pawar presented a virtual chargesheet against the government detailing its failure.

Slogan-shouting Congress members disrupted the proceedings for a few minutes. Slogans included mahangayi roko gaddi chodo (control prices or resign).

The Left parties, the Janata Dal, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samajwadi Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Tamil Maanila Congress members walked out after a brief intervention by the parliamentary affairs minister Madan Lal Khurana who blamed the successive Congress governments for the present situation on the price front.

Asserting that continuance of such an unresponsive government would pose a grave danger to the country, Marxist Communist Party of India leader Somnath Chatterjee led his members out of the house.

The house witnessed noisy scenes throughout the brief discussions which took place during the zero hour. At one stage, Kerala Congress member P C Thomas squatted on the well of the house. Chatterjee persuaded him to resume his seat.

The brief discussion on the issues was on expected lines with the Opposition taking the government to task for its failure while the government's allies like the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Telugu Desam and the Marumalachchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam came to ruling party's rescue. Telugu Desam leader Yerram Naidu accused the Congress of politicising the price rise and said they were ruling high even in Congress-ruled states.

He, however, warned the government against a casual attitude to the problem and demanded stringent action against black marketeers and hoarders.

Raising the issue during the zero hour Sharad Pawar said the government has lost its right to continue in office since it had failed to control prices or tackling the law and order situation in the country.

The government, he said, lacked political will to tackle hoarders and blackmarketeers and consequently prices of essential commodities had risen sharply despite repeated assurances in the house to control prices, none of them had been implemented at the ground level, he said.

Describing the law and order situation in the country as alarming Pawar said Home Minister L K Advani himself seemed to be unhappy with what was happening in the national capital. The situation in the capital had turned from bad to worse, he said.

Describing the lot of the farming communtiy as pitiable, the Leader of the Opposition said scores of them had committed suicide as the government had failed to remedy the situation.

UNI