Who gets the credit for withdrawal of Bill on convicted leaders?

New Delhi: Even as the controversial ordinance and proposed Bill to shield convicted lawmakers has been withdrawn, politics is now playing out on who gets the credit. Is it Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, President Pranab Mukherjee or the Opposition? The Bharatiya Janata Party claims it had even opposed the move in Parliament even before the leaders of the Opposition met President Pranab Mukherjee. "If it's proven that the BJP opposed this ordinance, I will resign from my post," said Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi, to which BJP leader Smriti Irani replied, "BJP had put its opposition clearly on the floor of Parliament." ALSO SEE Rahul has the final say as Cabinet junks Bill, ordinance on convicted leaders "It's a part of Parliamentary record that the government tried to push discussion on this Bill and curtail it to 1 hour. Arun Jaitley immediately got up and warned the government that this is a Bill with serious repercussions. It should not be curtailed in such a fashion and the government had to concede. It's a matter of record. It is also a matter of record that when the government hurried with the ordinance the BJP went to the President with its reservation," Smriti said. Just minutes after this dramatic exchange of words between the spokespersons of BJP and Congress, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj herself entered the debate on whether the BJP too had made a U-turn on the ordinance to protect convicted netas. ALSO SEE Dynasty rules over constitutionality in UPA: BJP She tweeted, "Rajdeep, I am watching your program. What Satyavrat Chaturvedi is saying absolutely false that BJP didn't oppose the Bill in any form in Parliament. In the all-party meeting, 4 choices were placed before us. They were divergent views and no consensus could emerge. Chidambram and Kamal Nath told me we should send all 4 options to the standing committee. After the Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, Kapil Sibal met Arun Jaitly and me in my chamber and we made our opposition very categorical and clear. BJP said the ordinance was immoral, illegal and unconstitutional." With these tweets, Sushma swaraj has tried to suggest that BJP was opposed to this Bill from the beginning. But why this opposition was not registered in Parliament is a question that the BJP will have to answer. ALSO SEE Rahul should know we are not his followers: NCP Forced into a corner by Rahul Gandhi's condemnation of the ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called a meeting of the Union Cabinet on Wednesday where it was decided to withdraw the controversial legislation as well as Bill regarding the same. The Cabinet decision comes following massive public disapproval and Rahul's displeasure calling the ordinance, which had been passed to negate a Supreme Court order that disqualified convicted legislators from the memberships of Parliament/ Assemblies, a "complete nonsense". The decision to withdraw the ordinance was taken in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister at his residence which went on for just 10 minutes.

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