Yechury slams BJP for helping Congress in Parliament impasse

New Delhi, Sep.6 (ANI):Communist Party of India (Marxist) lawmaker Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday crticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for disrupting debates in parliament, leading to its adjournment.

He said that BJP's repeated protests over the Gujarat Lokayukta issue suggested that it was helping the ruling Congress by disrupting proceedings and letting the government off the hook on major issues affecting the people.

"We strongly disapprove of this. We think that the matter is sub judice at the moment. Let the courts pronounce their decision, and that, as I said, will be followed by all and the matter should be handled in such a way that we should allow the one day left to transact some business," he said.

Yechury said that if there was any ambiguity with respect to the powers of the state governor, there was a need to clarify them. He also urged the federal government to take a stand on the issue.

He further welcomed the arrest of Janardhana Reddy, the BJP legislator from south India accused of illegal mining and added that Communist parties had been raising the issue for over seven years.

"We have been raising the issue of illegal mining in Obulapuram for the last 7 to 8 years. We appraised the ruling Congress government of the situation, and said that both the state governments were responsible for curbing illegal mining. The matter was taken to court, which delineated some areas where mining was allowed and some others where it was not. We demand that the government to see this case thoroughly, so that justice can be done and the billions of rupees worth of illicit funds should be returned to the nation," he said.

Yechury said that the arrest proved that both the BJP and the ruling Congress party were mired in corruption.

Speaking on the last-minute refusal of Mamata Banerjee, the state chief of eastern India's West Bengal state, to travel with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Bangladesh because of her problems on the issue of water sharing, Yechury said the issue had been debated for a long time, and Banerjee's last minute refusal could tarnish the country's image.

"Figures cannot be pulled out of a hat and suddenly shown to anybody. They must have discussed it in cabinet. They have their own members in the cabinet. They should have raised the issues at the relevant forums. What I'm saying is, I'm not going into the merits-demerits of the issue. The manner in which it was done, I think that should have been avoided, it caused embarrassment to the country. Because India-Bangladesh relationships are very important for us. They involves crores of people, literally crores of people are involved in this on a daily basis," he said.

Yechury lauded the federal government's decision to introduce a new land acquisition Bill in Parliament.

"Ten years ago, when Special Economic Zones were being thought about, we said that acquiring land on the basis of a 1894 law is unfair. A new law is needed, apart from compensation and employment, both the landowners and the people working on the land must be entitled to benefits. The main issue is that the person who owns the land to begin with, should get a share when the value of the land appreciates," said Yechury.

India's current land acquisition law was framed over a century ago and allows the government to take over land for a "public purpose" without compensation. (ANI)