Parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal on Thursday called the Opposition's bluff in accusing the ruling party of shying away from debates in the Assembly.

"We never refused to debate on any public matter except for the vote-on-account, which was never debated even during the previous government's term," Dhariwal told reporters at a press conference on the Assembly premises.

The minister asserted that the Opposition was specifically invited to debate on the Rajasthan Nagar Palika Laws (Amendment) Bill-2009, but the BJP enacted the 'silence drama' before the House as it feared being exposed for the lapses introduced in the Municipalities Bill introduced by the Vasundhara Raje government.

Dhariwal elaborated that according to the Bill prepared by the Raje government the state was required to hold elections every year to elect heads of 183 local bodies across Rajasthan. "Anyone can imagine the burden of imposing elections on people on an annual basis," the minister said terming the replaced bill an ill-thought one. "They (BJP MLAs) like to call their replaced bill an original one, whereas as many as 292 of its 322 sections were copied word-by-word from the 49-year old bill that we have reinstituted," Dhariwal pointed out. "BJP MLAs wore white bands today to actually escape being grilled on these points in the House," he quipped. He said it was unfortunate that the BJP MLAs enacted a 'drama' in the House to pretend as if they were being stopped from speaking. "We asked them to speak on the appropriation bill but they were adamant that the session should be extended," Dhariwal told reporters. "How could the House be extended when the government had no legislative work in hand?"

DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication