New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Friday slammed the UPA government for running away from the House on Thursday night without voting and said it was the biggest ever Parliamentary fraud.
"Yesterday UPA's managers and fixers failed in Rajya Sabha. Government's strategy was to create disturbance so that they are bailed out. Government ran away from vote in the Rajya Sabha. Biggest ever parliamentary fraud was committed at the stroke of midnight," the BJP leader said.
"The government that ran away from vote has no moral right to continue in power. We will decide this evening what will be BJP's next court of action," he added.
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said it was quite clear that the government wanted to dump the Lokpal Bill.
"TV channels last evening had exposed how chaos would be orchestrated in the Rajya Sabha. It's quite clear that the government wants to dump the Lokpal Bill. This government doesn't even consult its allies yet blames the Opposition," she said.
"Our stand on Lokpal has been consistent, UPA's own ally changed stand. The UPA has lost its majority, it has no right to continue in power," she added.
Jaitley said, "If it was freedom at midnight on August 15, 1947, it was 'flee-dom' at midnight yesterday."
"Government created disturbance with the help of a friendly party to run away from vote. If government shies away from voting on amendments it does not want, it is a sad day for Parliamentary democracy," he said, adding that the government should quit and hold fresh elections.
Vowing to "expose" the government on the Lokpal Bill issue, the BJP demanded that it should quit and hold fresh elections as it had "lost" majority in both Houses of Parliament.
"The government has lost a majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.... This government should quit and hold fresh elections," BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said, a day after the Rajya Sabha failed to pass the Lokpal Bill.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, "the BJP core group would be meeting later today to decide what it will do on the road (on the Lokpal issue). We will expose the government on the road and make the public aware in the wake of yesterday's developments. We will take up this Bill in the next session and expose the government there also."
Jaitley said, "The government has lost its political equilibrium. The balance of this government has also been disturbed."
Terming Thursday's events as unfortunate, Jaitley said, "This was an act of political suicide with respect to the government's own credibility.
"A government which runs away from voting, has no political or moral right to stay in power."
Swaraj, on the other hand, said, "It is a defeat of an arrogant government.... It should do some introspection.... The government wants to dump the Bill."
Charging the government with "orchestrating" the events on Thursday to avoid voting on the Lokpal Bill in Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said, "Government created disturbance with the help of a friendly party to run away from vote...If government shies away from voting on amendments it does not want, it is a sad day for Parliamentary democracy."
Jaitley said there were only three major amendments sought by the BJP and the session could have been extended to allow voting on the Bill.
He also cast aspersions on the competency of Parliamentary Affairs department and found the statement of Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal "curious" that it needed time to work on the 187-odd amendments sought in the Bill.
He said the three basic amendments could have been brought in "if we had a more competent Parliamentary Affairs department".
(With additional inputs from PTI)
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