Govt, oppn hold talks over PM’S remarks against Manmohan

NEW DELHI: The government and the opposition on Tuesday held meetings to resolve the impasse in Rajya Sabha over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “conspiracy with Pak” remark against his predecessor Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat poll campaign, but the stalemate on the issue continued.

Opposition leaders met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and his deputy Vijay Goel in Parliament and sought a resolution of the issue.

They demanded that the prime minister should clarify his remarks in the Rajya Sabha.

The half-an-hour meeting in Jaitley’s chamber was attended by Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, besides opposition leaders Ramgopal Yadav, Satish Misra, D Raja and others.

After the meeting, Jaitley separately met Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Azad in the latter’s chamber.

Earlier, before the House commenced, the Congress leaders had also met Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for the resolution of the issue with the Vice President suggesting that the matter be resolved between the opposition and the government sitting across the table.

Azad also raised the issue in the House after which Naidu suggested that the two sides sit together and resolve the issue. Leader of the House Arun Jaitley agreed to do so and the two meetings with the opposition followed.

“The meeting has been held. Opposition leaders have given their proposition to the government,” Congress leader Anand Sharma told reporters.

“We are still waiting whether the justifiable demand of the opposition is acceptable to the prime minister so that we can bring a closure to the controversy which was painful, which was of his creation and was entirely avoidable,” he said.

Sharma said the prime minister has said something which in their view is a constitutional transgression because he holds the office of the prime minister.