NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
As Parliament remained paralysed for the third day running, BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra released to reporters a "second" list of opposition leaders who had recommended to Naik the allotment of petrol pumps and gas agencies.
Those who figure in the list include Congress politicians Motilal Vora, Santosh Mohan Deb, Margaret Alva, Suresh Kalmadi, Oscar Fernandes, Jagmeet Singh Brar, S Bangarappa, K Muraleedharan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and Sisram Ola, Communist Party of India, Marxist, member Basudev Acharia, the CPI's Nagendra Nath Ojha and Samajwadi Party member and film star Raj Babbar.
In reply to questions, Malhotra, however, refused to give details about those for whom these recommendations were made. He said the details would be given later.
Accusing the Congress and other opposition parties of disrupting Parliament, Malhotra said they were "strangling democracy".
"In the last two and a half years the opposition has indulged in this kind of disruptive activity on some pretext or the other like Ayodhya, Gujarat, and now this," he said.
Malhotra said there were a large number of issues that needed to be discussed, like drought, Jammu & Kashmir, the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, and important legislation like electoral reforms, but this "undemocratic behaviour of the opposition has wasted the time of Parliament".
Malhotra said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee cancelling all allotments and going for bidding was proof enough that the issue had been settled.
PTI
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