The Communist Party of India-Marxist on lashed out at the BJP for disrupting the proceedings of Parliament on 'flimsy grounds' and wondered whether the main Opposition party was trying to scuttle a debate in the House on the Sachar panel findings.
Amid speculation about moves to curtail the Monsoon session, the Left party said it was not party to any such plans and opposed the BJP's demand for constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the Indo-US nuclear deal as 'unacceptable.'
"The BJP's demand is quite impossible, impractical and cannot be accepted by the government," CPI-M leader in Lok Sabha Basudev Acharia told media persons in New Delhi while noting that Parliament has no authority to scrutinise the deal.
"They also know very well that in case of international treaty and agreements, there is no scope for Parliament for its ratification.... JPC is mini-Parliament," he said, adding that the Left parties have been pushing for a constitutional amendment to empower Parliament to have such authority.
Attacking the BJP, CPI-M's Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Mohd Salim said the saffron party had repeatedly disrupted proceedings and forced an early adjournment of the session last time also when the Parliament was to discuss the Sachar Committee issue.
"We waited for nine months. We need to have a discussion," he said, while attacking the government for not implementing the findings of the Sachar Committee. The Action Taken Report tabled in the House has 'nothing substantive,' he added.
"The ATR has nothing substantive. It is a post-dated cheque and the government has defaulted on many counts. The ATR is just a repetition of an earlier press release issued by the government," Salim alleged.
Asked whether he thought the government also wants early adjournment of the session to avoid uncomfortable questions on implementation of the Sachar panel findings, he said 'sometimes it suits both ends.'
Acharia said because of the disruptions by the BJP on 'flimsy grounds,' discussions on several important issues like price rice, Sachar committee and agrarian crisis are not being held.
Asked specifically about the meeting between Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and Leader of the Opposition L K Advani, which triggered speculation that the session may be curtailed, he said: "We want the House to continue."
"I don't know what transpired between the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition. The Left's position is clear. We want the House to function.... The CPI-M and the Left is not party to this," he added.
Referring to the joint naval exercises underway in the Bay of Bengal, Acharia said the Left MPs will hold a sit-in in Parliament on Thursday to mark their opposition to the wargames involving America.
He also sought to know why there is a sudden surge in joint exercises in Asia.
"Is it that the security in Asia is threatened now? What is the strategic necessity," he asked.
Pointing out that inviting the US to India's vicinity will not ensure 'our security,' he said: "We must have our own independent strategic perspective -- an Asian perspective -- rather than holding multi-nation exercises."
