Indian PM blames opposition for washout of Parliament's winter session

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday slammed the opposition parties, mainly the Congress, for the washout of the Parliament's winter session, saying they were out to spoil the government's anti-corruption agenda.

"I'm upset that on one side, we are trying to stop corruption and black money, but the (Opposition) only want to stop the Parliament. For an entire month, they didn't allow the Parliament to function," Modi said, while addressing a political rally in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Modi said the opposition parties resorted to disrupting the Parliament proceedings as they were scared to discuss the topics that the government wished to discuss, and "that is why felt they need to stop the functioning of both Houses."

However, Modi defended the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's same attitude when it was in the opposition. "The Parliament used to be disrupted earlier too. But then disruptions took place as the opposition came together to take on corruption and bring corrupt to justice," he said.

The entire month-long winter session of the Parliament was washed out as both the ruling and the opposition parties traded charges against each other over demonetization and its impact on the common people, and forced repeated adjournments in both the Upper House and the Lower House.

Modi had on Nov. 8, in a surprise televised address to the nation, had banned currency notes of 500 rupees and 1,000 rupees (7.5 U.S. dollar and 15 U.S. dollar respectively) in a bid to curb black money and prevent the circulation of fake notes among terrorists.

source: Xinhua