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Sonia hits out at BJP for disrupting Parliament

August 30, 2012 19:33 IST

Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for stalling Parliament, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday made it clear its wishes would not be fulfilled through its tactics and dared it for a debate on coal block allocation to separate "fact" from "fiction".

Without naming BJP, she said some people are politicising every issue which was not helping the country facing several serious challenges like inflation, drought, floods, social tensions besides impact of slowdown of global economy.

"Do we want to destroy this democratic system, which our ancestors, our freedom fighters after sacrificing their lives have gifted to us? Will this help the country? The solutions to the problems and the issues that are facing us today can only be found through discussion in Parliament," Gandhi said while inaugurating a drinking water project.

"Today, we face several serious challenges like the slowing down of global economy, which to a limited extent has affected us. Apart from this, we are faced by inflation, drought, floods, social tensions which are other problems," Gandhi said.

To deal with all these problems, "we today need to rise above party lines to support each other. But sadly, some people by politicising every issue are busy in stalling the proceedings of Parliament."

She spoke at a time when Parliament was stalled for the seventh consecutive day by BJP which is demanding resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over CAG report on coal block allocation.

"If someone thinks that either everything will happen according to their wishes or nothing will happen - then this cannot happen in a democracy," she asserted.

The Congress President questioned BJP for avoiding its repeated calls for a debate on the issue of coal block allocations and said she believed that a discussion would bring facts out in the open.

"...the repeated invitations of the UPA government for debate, why is it that these people avoid it? I request everyone that keeping in mind the glory of democracy and Parliament, they should participate in the proceedings," she said.

"Mujhe poora vishwas hai, iss se doodh ka doodh, aur paani ka paani ho jayega. (I have complete faith that through discussion, the fact will be separated from fiction)," Gandhi said.

This is the second time in three days that the UPA chairperson has slammed BJP for disrupting Parliament.

On Tuesday, she had accused BJP of holding Parliament to ransom through "blackmail which has become its bread and butter" and asked the party to "stand up and fight aggressively".

She had accused BJP of acting with "wanton irresponsibility".

Amandeep Shukla in Barmer
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