New Delhi, April 29: The BJP has decided to “allow” the passage of the finance bill in the Lok Sabha but without participating in discussions.
It will walk out when the House tomorrow takes up for passage the finance bill, appropriation bill, rail budget and the demands for grants to ministries in protest against the 2G JPC report and the coal probe report row.
However, its biggest ally, the Janata Dal (United), has indicated it may not be part of the BJP “boycott”.
“The budget has to be passed, it is a constitutional obligation. Of course, we share the same view as the BJP on other matters it has campaigned against. But on a walkout, we are not sure,” said JD(U) Rajya Sabha member K.C. Tyagi.
The Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal, the NDA’s other constituents, are on the same page as the BJP.
When the lower House sits tomorrow, the BJP will not drum up its usual chorus for the withdrawal of the JPC report on the 2G controversy and its demand for law minister Ashwani Kumar’s resignation.
Lok Sabha Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj is expected to explain why the BJP was boycotting proceedings.
“The nation needs to know why we are upset with the state of affairs under the UPA,” a source said, adding that it was “vital” for the BJP to counter the Congress “propaganda” that its parliamentary conduct was “obstructive and anti-democratic”.
“If a government carries on open loot under the country’s nose, is it obstructionist and anti-democratic to protest in Parliament?” asked BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar.
He claimed the BJP was a “responsible” Opposition and realised that if the budget was not passed, a constitutional crisis would ensue.
Sources in the JD(U) said they were “unhappy” with the BJP’s strategy as the budget session was critical to the country’s “interests” and “more so when the economy was in near doldrums”.
“This is all the more reason why representatives of each party must pitch in the discussions and more so, those of the principal Opposition,” an MP said.