PM meets BJP leaders to end parliament logjam

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met top BJP leaders on Tuesday evening to seek their cooperation in passage of the land acquisition bill in parliament and to break the ice over his statement on “missing files” in the coal block allocation controversy, sources said.

The meeting comes a day before the prime minister’s visit to Russia to attend the G20 Summit. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L.K. Advani, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj attended the meeting. He urged the BJP leaders to let parliament function normally.

Sources said Manmohan Singh assured leaders of the Opposition party that nothing would be hidden concerning the missing files. He also urged the BJP to cooperate in passage of pending economic bills. The land bill will be presented before the Rajya Sabha for passage Wednesday.

Sources said that BJP leaders will meet Wednesday morning to discuss their strategy in the wake of meeting with the prime minister. They expressed dissatisfaction over prime minister’s statement on the missing files issue.

The two houses saw adjournments Tuesday as members insisted that the prime minister should reply to clarifications sought on his statement on the missing files in the coal block allocation.

At its daily briefing, the BJP sharply attacked the prime minister and accused him of being economical with truth in his statement on the missing files.

The BJP also indicated that it may not cooperate with the government on passage of the land acquisition bill in the Rajya Sabha. The bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha.

“If the government thinks that the government business is taken up and issue of accountability takes a back seat, this is plainly not acceptable. Cooperation cannot be one-way traffic,” said party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.

He claimed the prime minister was evasive in his statement on the missing files and had not replied to opposition concerns on the issue.

-IANS