New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today cited Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, to take on the Congress over repeated disruptions in Parliament, amidst indications that the current session could well be heading for a washout.
“Those who claim the legacy of Pandit ji (Nehru) must ask themselves the question, what kind of history are they making,” Jaitley wrote in his blog, citing a speech delivered by Nehru on the parliamentary system on March 28, 1957.
“Here, we have sat in this Parliament, the sovereign authority of India, responsible for the governance of India. Surely, there can be no higher responsibility or greater privilege than to be a member of this sovereign body which is responsible for the fate of the vast number of human beings who live in this country.
All of us, if not always, at any rate from time to time, must have felt this high sense of responsibility and destiny to which we had been called. Whether we were worthy of it or not is another matter. We have functioned, therefore, during these five years not only on the edge of history but sometimes plunging into the processes of making history,” Jaitley quoted Nehru as having said in his speech on the last day of the first Lok Sabha.
Jaitley's comments come at a time when the government is struggling to get the Rajya Sabha's approval for the passage of the crucial Goods and Services Tax Bill.
Jaitley, who has been actively airing his views on important matters on his blog, further criticised the Congress for disrupting proceedings in the Parliament “The reasons for the wash out of the current Session keep changing by the hour. The nation is waiting for the Parliament to discuss public issues, to legislate and approve a historic Constitution Amendment enabling the GST,” Jaitley wrote.
“The question we need to ask ourselves is, “are we being fair to ourselves and this country?” Jaitley added.
