BJP Politician Wonders if Opposition Meant to Only Cause Parliamentary Disruptions

The Indian parliament annually conducts Budget Session, Monsoon Session, and Winter Session where the lower and upper houses - Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha - meet to discuss the decisions taken by the federal government, and pass bills. The ongoing Monsoon Session began on July 18 and is scheduled to last until August 12.

The ongoing Monsoon Session in the Indian Parliament has been marred by protests and mass walkouts by opposition lawmakers, along with heated exchange of words, adjournments and hardly any debate.

Talking to Sputnik, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentarian Dilip Ghosh criticized opposition members for raising irrelevant issues, instead of discussing what really matters.

Ghosh, who is also the party's vice-president, expressed his annoyance over the opposition parties attacking the federal government on every issue and doing only party politics in the House meant for constructive discussions and debate.

Sputnik: How do you view continuous disruptions and adjournment in the ongoing parliament session?

Dilip Ghosh: For the past few parliament sessions, we've been seeing a trend that the Opposition members are not letting the House function. We see frequent disruptions, especially after they've been losing elections against us in many states.

In this Monsoon Session too, they are raising issues of inflation, price rise, etc. We [the federal government] have always said that we are ready to discuss [these and other issues]. But I don't know why they're still disrupting the parliament.

On Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated the Indian economy is getting more robust, and that India's economic fundamentals are perfect. But the Opposition is not interested in any discussion.

Sputnik: The Opposition has clearly said that it is not their responsibility to run the House. The federal government should listen to them too. What's your take on such a response?

Dilip Ghosh: This doesn't seem right to say. It's everyone's responsibility to run the parliament smoothly. The Opposition members are also elected, and they are answerable to the citizens. Then what is their responsibility? To protest, hold placards and disrupt the House?

Because of the unruly opposition behavior, they got suspended. They should question, participate in debates, and help the government in passing the Bills. Millions of rupees are being spent to run the House. Why waste taxpayers' money?

Sputnik: Last week, Congress Parliamentarian Adhir Ranjan Choudhary called newly elected President Draupadi Murmu "Rashtrapatni" (wife of the country). Later he apologized, saying it was a slip of the tongue. Why did the BJP continue protesting against Congress over the issue?

Dilip Ghosh: That was not a slip of the tongue. While taking the name of his party members, or Sonia Gandhi or even Rahul Gandhi, he never mispronounced their names. But he has a habit of mispronouncing Narendra Modi, the federal minister's name, etc. And, this was not his first time.

Moreover, why did he wait so long to apologize? There were many Hindi-speaking Congress politicians present in the House who could have corrected at the moment. But nobody bothered.

Sputnik: How do you view Congress' call for a nationwide protest against inflation?

Dilip Ghosh: As I said previously, India is not seeing any recession. If things turn worse in the future, the government is preparing for it and taking all preventive measures to deal with the situation.

Economic situation of the whole world is tumbling, first after COVID and then after Russia's military operation in Ukraine. India is anyway doing better than the US, Europe and their neighboring countries.

During COVID, we provided food to up to 25 million poor people. Secondly, almost every industry suffered during COVID, and our policy supported all of them.

Our government is trying to put inflation below 7 percent. Yes, petroleum is becoming costly, but that would also be controlled too.

Sputnik: Opposition leaders have levelled charges that the federal government is using investigative agencies (CBI and ED) against politicians, journalists, etc. Is their charge justified?

Dilip Ghosh: This is so wrong to say. Most of the time, investigative agencies are following the courts' order. They can't file cases themselves. When we were in the Opposition, complaints were filed against our party members.

In July, the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi (in the 2002 Gujarat riots case). The Supreme Court, in its observation, said that the case against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah was politically motivated.

Complaints are the norm, and every individual has the right to lodge a complaint. Whether it's correct or not, that's the matter of investigation. If opposition members are sure that they've not done anything wrong, they'll come clean and have nothing to worry about.

But we (BJP) never said that police or investigative agencies are corrupt, etc. We have always believed in the Indian constitution.