New Delhi, June 17 (IANS) Amid buzz over ‘Operation Tiger’ to lure Shiv Sena-UBT MPs by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Congress leaders on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of breaking up the opposition parties in order to gather numbers to pass Bills in the Parliament.
The response referred to the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which aimed to reserve 33 per cent of seats for women in Parliament and included provisions to expand the House’s strength, but had failed to secure the constitutionally required two-thirds majority for passage.
Talking to reporters, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said: “The ruling party in the country is trying to break, manipulate, and bring all regional parties to its side because they need to pass two to three bills in the Parliament which could not be passed so far due to lack of numbers.”
“They (BJP) will do whatever they want to get the numbers. But all this is not right for democracy,” he said.
Echoing a similar view, Congress leader Sachin Pilot said: “Wherever there is no majority, this (BJP-led) government wants to prove its majority.”
Emphasising that a strong opposition is very important, he alleged: “All kinds of efforts are being made to break the unity of the Opposition parties.”
“This is a wrong method, but despite all this, I believe that the Opposition is united and will continue working together under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership,” Pilot told IANS.
Congress leader Nana Patole said: “The way the media is portraying this as ‘Operation Tiger’, I believe it is an insult to the tiger itself. What we are witnessing is the outcome of a system that is undermining democracy under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.”
Referring to the split in the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, he said: “What happened in West Bengal is being repeated in Maharashtra.”
“Rather than calling it ‘Operation Tiger’, it would be more appropriate to describe it as a movement driven by opportunism,” he remarked.
Congress MP Imran Masood accused the BJP-led Centre of “suppressing” the voice of the Opposition.
“The opposition acts as a mirror for the ruling party, but the government simply does not want to look in it,” Masoon told IANS.
—IANS
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