Readying for the big political battle in West Bengal, CPI(M) Lok Sabha member Mohd. Salim feels that Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs almost “defended their right to take bribes” in both the Houses after a sting operation that was telecast a few days back showed five of their Lok Sabha members accepting cash from fictitious officials of a private firm.
On TMC’s defence of the sting operation
Whenever there have been allegations of corruption against MPs, the entire house has come together, but this time the TMC MPs broke the ranks and defended their right to take bribe. They blamed the bribe giver also.
On Speaker’s decision to refer the case to ethics committee
It is a question of cleaning up the system.
On the functioning of Parliament
The way the Aadhaar bill was passed by the government as a money bill exposed the ruling dispensation’s intention of bypassing the Upper House completely. Ideally the bill should have been referred to a select committee.
On his assessment of the Budget Session.
The Opposition, including his party, would have liked to raise more economic issues, like agrarian crisis and the price rise. All these issues we tried to raise, but the government was eager to bypass the economic issues.