PM has failed to discipline his ministers, says Jaitley

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for failing to discipline his ministers.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for failing to discipline his ministers.

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The context: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement that she had no work in Delhi, as Parliament was not in session.

Jaitley said such statements were part of a larger trend of lack of ministerial responsibility in the UPA government.

His charge: Some ministers were either shirking their duties, or repeatedly speaking out of turn to embarrass the government.

“This government is a case of lack of ministerial responsibility,” Jaitley said. “All that is happening has to be seen in terms of the inability of the Prime Minister to discipline his ministers.”

He reeled out examples to drive home his point.

“There is one minister who does not even attend Parliament,” he said, hinting at Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M.K. Alagiri’s prolonged absences from Parliament.

“Another Minister prefers to stay a 1,000 kilometres away and not here,” he said, referring to Banerjee, whose main concern seems to be to win the next polls in West Bengal and throw the CPI (M) out of power there.

“There are also ministers who comment on other ministers, and even from foreign soil,” Jaitley said, referring to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s statement in China that the home ministry’s approach to Chinese companies was “alarmist and paranoid”.