Opposition not allowing govt to reply to debates: Chidambaram

New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) Indian government on Tuesday
accused the Opposition of not allowing it to reply to the
debates in Parliament and constantly deviating from the listed
issue.
"When Opposition is allowed to have its say, the
Treasury Benches should be allowed to have their say too. But
time and again I have pointed out, they will not allow you to
speak. It is a rare debate where they allow you to reply. For
example, the one day before in the Rajya was a rare debate
where they allowed you to reply," Home Minister P Chidambaram
told reporters outside Parliament.
He maintained that the order paper for Tuesday's debate
in Parliament was on the statement made by Youth Affairs and
Sports Minister Ajay Maken and not the CAG report on
Commonwealth Games and so the opposition should have stuck to
the issue.
"The debate was not on the CAG report. The debate was
on a statement made by Ajay Maken. Therefore they should have
confined to the subject matter of that statement. But if you
widened the debate into the debate on the CAG report, I want
to know how many people have read that 600 page report. The
CAG report should go to a PAC, then it should come to
Parliament," Chidambaram said.
Replying to a question, he said it was wrong that senior
BJP leader Yashwant Sinha dragged the name of former Jharkhand
CM Madhu Koda into the debate on Maken's statement.
Speaking on the issue, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K
Bansal said more than 50 per cent time of both the Houses has
been wasted due to the Opposition as it was not allowing the
Parliament to function.
Asked whether the debate on statement of Sports Minister's
statement on Commonwealth Games would continue on Wednesday,
he said, "There is a question mark whether debate would be
taken up tomorrow."
"I think they have their own agenda and they don't want
a discussion as they think that discussion may not be very
savoury for them and they are disrupting the House," Bansal
said.