Government responsible for winter session washout: Congress

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: The Congress on Wednesday accused the government for the winter session of parliament having been a washout and said the opposition was not taken onboard on many issues.

“The government’s attitude of intolerance, arrogance and mindset of confrontation with the opposition led to unprecedented bitterness in political discourse and vitiated the political atmosphere,” Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam bi Azad said at a press conference after both houses of parliament adjourned sine die after the winter session.

“It is wrong for the government to say that the session was a washout because of us... the government should own responsibility for running the house,” maintained Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.

Kharge said the ruling alliance tried to “bulldoze” the opposition in the Lok Sabha, but since the government was in minority in the Rajya Sabha, the opposition stuck to their demands and thus the government placed the blame for the session- washout on the Congress.

Azad said the government’s “agenda to belittle the opposition, and unwarranted hurling of insults, has negated the possibility of any meaningful engagement between the government and the opposition and in the process undermined the smooth functioning of parliament”.