Finance Minister shrugs off Congress threat to disrupt Parliament

New Delhi, Jul 2: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today brushed aside concerns of Parliament's upcoming monsoon session being disrupted over the Lalit Modi controversy, saying some people may be relevant to TV channels but not to governance.

Jaitley said the Bills to amend the Land Acquisition Act and bring in a uniform pan-India Goods and Services Tax (GST) are very crucial for development and hoped no political party takes anti-growth and anti-development position.

"Some people may be of relevance to television channels, (but) they have no relevance to governance as far as the Government of India is concerned," he told reporters here.

He was replying to a question on the possibility of the monsoon session of Parliament getting washed out over Congress' demand for resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over alleged links with former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

Jaitley, however, evaded a direct response to the controversy in which Lalit Modi has been dragging various politicians, including him. The Finance Minister was hopeful that no political party will take anti-growth and anti-development stand to block the crucial Bills, which he termed as "extremely necessary".

"There is a lot of importance of these Bills to the country's economy... the government is hopeful that no political party will adopt a negative approach on the issue of development of the country," he said.

PTI