Reacting sharply to the Congress' remarks, the BJP dubbed the ruling party members as "agents of Quattrocchi".
"There is a propaganda of the Maoists that Indian democracy does not reflect the aspirations of the people. The manner in which the opposition has disrupted Parliament and not allowed the supreme voice of the people to function it takes credence to the propaganda of Maoists. It almost seems as if the opposition is behaving as their agents," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told mediapersons outside Parliament.
The BJP retorted by raking up the Bofors case. "Quattrocchi's agents are accusing us of being Maoist agents. Quattrocchi's agents do not have the right to say so," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said, referring to Bofors case accused Ottavio Quattrocchi The party has been accusing the government of protecting the Italian businessman, who was being sought until early 2009 in India for criminal charges for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal.
While Tewari appealed to all opposition leaders to rise above party politics and allow democracy to function, Javdekar said, "The issue relates to democracy only. When 70 per cent of members of Parliament are demanding a joint parliamentary committee, why is the Congress running away from it. Running away from JPC is undemocratic, demanding JPC is democratic. The Congress seems to have lost all logic that is why the party is doing this."The deadlock over the opposition demand for the JPC probe into the 2G Spectrum issue continued for the fifteenth day. "If the situation would be allowed to continue like this then this will not be good for democracy," the Congress spokesperson said.
