Mumbai, Jan 18: BJP leader Arun Jaitley feels ministers in the Manmohan Singh government are either “arrogant or sulking” and that it was tough to have a dialogue with them.
Jaitley made this remark while asserting it was up to the government to initiate a consensus with the Opposition over passage of important legislations in Parliament.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha however had a word of praise for Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, saying he has made efforts to build consensus with the BJP.
“This government(of UPA) has two kinds of ministers arrogant or sulking. Only Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has made efforts to build consensus with us,” Jaitley said, adding it was difficult to have a dialogue with the UPA ministers.
Jaitley also asked the corporate sector to advise the Prime Minister rather than to the Opposition to evolve a consensus on various legislations, some of which remained stalled in the Winter session of Parliament.
“How do I cooperate with a government which has decided not to do anything. You should write to the Prime Minister before writing an open letter to us (Opposition),” Jaitley said at the Express Adda, during an interaction with representatives from the trade and industry here last night.
Corporate India should have same standards for judging the Opposition and the government, he said. “The Prime Minister should be asked if there is consensus within the UPA,” he added.
Jaitley alleged there has been a decline in standards of government leadership.
“There is lack of ability to take obvious decisions. This regime has lost credibility because the Prime Minister gave clean chits to everybody against whom charges of corruption were levelled,” he alleged.
The BJP leader said his party decided to support the Pension bill and the government too accepted some minor changes suggested by it.
“However, the government immediately withdrew the bill because of pressure from within the alliance,” he said in an apparent reference to objections by Trinamool Congress.
