Opposition not allowing govt to reply to debates: HM

Government on Tuesday accused the Opposition of not allowing it to reply to the debates in Parliament and constantly deviating from the listed issue.

"When Opposition is allowed to have its say, the Treasury Benches should be allowed to have their say too. But time and again I have pointed out, they will not allow you to speak. It is a rare debate where they allow you to reply. For example, the one day before in the Rajya was a rare debate where they allowed you to reply," Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters outside Parliament.

He maintained that the order paper for today's debate in Parliament was on the statement made by Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Ajay Maken and not the CAG report on Commonwealth Games and so the opposition should have stuck to the issue.

"The debate was not on the CAG report. The debate was on a statement made by Ajay Maken. Therefore they should have confined to the subject matter of that statement. But if you widened the debate into the debate on the CAG report, I want to know how many people have read that 600 page report. The CAG report should go to a PAC, then it should come to Parliament," Chidambaram said.

Replying to a question, he said it was wrong that senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha dragged the name of former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda into the debate on Maken's statement.

Speaking on the issue, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal said more than 50 per cent time of both the Houses has been wasted due to the Opposition as it was not allowing the Parliament to function.

Asked whether the debate on statement of Sports Minister's statement on Commonwealth Games would continue on Wednesday, he said, "There is a question mark whether debate would be taken up tomorrow."

"I think they have their own agenda and they don't want a discussion as they think that discussion may not be very savoury for them and they are disrupting the House," Bansal said.