The NDA is divided on the proposed move to resign en masse from the Lok Sabha on the Coalgate issue — alleged scam in the coal block allocation — two years before the general election.
A section of the BJP is toying with this idea saying that after the logjam in Parliament the next step will be to resign from the parliamentary panel. And after that the BJP will hold meetings across the country. The last option will obviously be to quit from the Lok Sabha.
But its allies in the NDA on Thursday virtually rejected the very idea saying that this is neither practical nor feasible politically. While some non-BJP MPs in the NDA asked why should they resign suggesting why not the BJP members from the Rajya Sabha also resign if the party sees the corruption issue would bring the NDA back to power at the Centre. The BJP or the NDA can launch an agitation on the corruption issue only with a credible face. But the BJP’s current strategy in Parliament is of “disruption and no discussion” until Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resigns.
But in the next week it has to modify the strategy as the government cannot accept its demand come what may. The government managers made it clear that it will not adjourn the Parliament session sine die. Concluding the session early will mean the government cannot face the opposition, they said.
Now the issue is whether the BJP and its allies have reached to a point of no return. The picture will be clear in the next week when the NDA leaders meet on Monday morning to decide the next course of action.
Asked whether a JPC on the coal allocation scam could end the impasse, a BJP leader said, “We have seen the fate of the JPC on spectrum allocation. Therefore it cannot be accepted. And a discussion on the coal allocation scam in the two Houses of Parliament in the coming days would end the very issue,” the leader said.