Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to President Pranab Mukherjee in a bid to end logjam in the Parliament resuming today with no apparent signs of resolution of the deadlock.
After two weeks of paralysis, the storm over the coalgate issue is expected to week of monsoon session of Parliament resuming on Monday with no apparent signs of resolution of the deadlock.
BJP, which has been demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the wake of the CAG report on coal block allocations speaking of undue benefit of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore, is unrelenting in its campaign.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had reached out to leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj to end the deadlock. During the telephonic conversation between the two leaders last night, Swaraj said the government should announce cancellation of the controversial coal block allocations and order an independent inquiry.
An unrelenting BJP said it would continue pressing for its demand for the Prime Minister's resignation inside and outside Parliament.
The opposition NDA has been further emboldened by protests from Samajwadi Party, TDP and Left parties against the government on this issue.
"While there have been demands for the resignation of the Prime Minister and a high-level inquiry, now the common minimum denominator is cancellation of the coal block allocations as Samajwadi Party, the Left parties and everybody is demanding it," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told PTI.
He maintained that a majority of those in Parliament are demanding cancellation of coal blocks which is a major development. "Protest (in Parliament) has become people's protest and nation's protest," Javadekar said.
15th Lok Sabha most disrupted House ever
The 15th Lok Sabha, formed after the UPA returned to power with a healthier majority, is likely to go down as the most disrupted since 1952, the year of the first general election.
The data analysed by PRS, a research body on the parliamentary system, show the present term of the Lok Sabha has already been disrupted more than any other before, with a 27% shortfall in working hours — a performance worse than 2004-09 or 1999-2004 of the NDA regime.
In November 2008 the Lok Sabha secretariat had said each minute of parliamentary proceedings cost Rs.29,000.
In the monsoon session, the Lok Sabha sat for about 23 hours against the scheduled 60 hours and the Rajya Sabha for 25 against the planned 50 hours, till Friday. The disquiet over 2G spectrum had washed away an entire session — winter 2010 — and disruptions ever since have marred almost every session owing to issues like the Commonwealth Games, lokpal, price rise and Telangana statehood.
Even as they attribute the present stalemate to the BJP demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation, analysts have also highlighted the gaps in dialogue between the ruling and opposing sides.
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Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
