Win over oppn through dinners, bouquets: Swaraj

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Sunday suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states win over Opposition through gestures like extending 'personal touch', arranging dinners and sending bouquets to opposition leaders.

"If an opposition leader asks for time, try to give him time. When he comes to your office or residence, ensure that your assistant is there to receive him when he alights from the car and you personally receive him at the doorstep," she said.

Swaraj was speaking at the concluding session of the two-day conference of chief ministers of BJP-ruled states on 'good governance'.

Senior leader L K Advani was scheduled to attend the concluding function but could not make it due to unavoidable reasons, she said.

"Any minister who meets Opposition like this...the Opposition is less aggressive towards him," she said.

Personal relations are above politics, she added.

"If any Opposition MLA is unwell, the parliamentary minister should send him bouquets and CM can follow up with a call to wish speedy recovery," she said.

She recalled that when she was both parliamentary affairs and health minister during National Democratic Alliance regime, she ensured any MP admitted to hospitals like AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia would get a bouquet from her in half an hour.

Swaraj emphasised that at least three dinners should be organised, one during every legislature session by the chief minister, finance minister and parliamentary affairs minister, for all legislators.

"The practice was there at Centre during Atal Behari Vajpayee government but we seem to have forgotten that now," she said.

"Our ideologies may be different but we are not enemies of each other. We live in the same country," Swaraj said. "We cannot imagine democracy sans the opposition," she said.