Kiran Mazumdar Shaw slams Congress for parliament logjam

Bengaluru, Aug 12: Biocon Chairperson and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Wednesday criticised the Congress party for the Parliament logjam and said it appears the grand old party believes the "only weapon" left is to oppose important legislations as supporting the government would weaken them politically.

"What I deduce from the Parliament logjam is that the Congress is diffident, especially after their decimation in the Lok Sabha elections. It appears that the only weapon the Congress has, is to oppose important bills like the GST. I believe the thinking of Congress is that if they support the government, they will become politically weak," Mazumdar-Shaw told PTI.

The Biocon Chief, however, said she is not against Congress Parliamentarians alone because she had been in the past even vocal against the BJP members who opposed FDI and other pro-development bills.

"It is not the question of me and other corporates hitting out at the Congress. I have been vociferously talking about BJP MPs in the past for their anti-growth stance on issues like FDI. So, it is not a matter concerning a party but nation as a whole," she said.

Mazumdar-Shaw also took a potshot at senior Opposition leader Sharad Yadav's comments that the capitalists cannot decide on how Parliament functions by terming it as ridiculous and anti-economic growth.

"The comments are ridiculous and irrational. I want to ask Sharad Yadav to kick all the industries out of Bihar, and then I want to see how his state grows economically. I mean it is ridiculous ...," she said.

Yadav had slammed the signature campaign by over 15,000 people, including the country's top industrialists, urging lawmakers to allow Parliament to function, debate and legislate.

Mazumdar-Shaw also questioned Yadav's statements and said, "who is he to ask us this question? If we see that the Parliamentarians are going off the track, not debating on economic growth and indulge in vote-bank politics, we (capitalists) have all the rights to raise and question the Parliamentarians indulging in disruption, only for Opposition sake."

Further flaying Yadav, Mazumdar said Parliamentarians are hijacking the issues of economic growth and disrupting Parliament on non-economic issues like the Lalit Modi and Vyapam scams.

"These parliamentarians are interested in hijacking economic issues and disrupting Parliament on non-economic isues like Vyapam and Lalit Modi scams. Yadav should know it is the industries who create jobs, not Parliamentarians, who sound as though they are least bothered of economic issues such as job creation," she said.

Asked how to make Parliamentarians accountable for the logjam, Mazumdar said there should be a Code of Conduct like the corporate world follows.

"There has to be a Code of Conduct that governs the Parliamentarians. We, the corporates, are governed by a Code of Conduct, and should be applied to MPs also. This will help Parliament to function without experiencing logjams," she said.

Mazumdar urged the Parliamentarians not to indulge in divisive politics but believe in inclusive politics, and discuss the non-economic issues separately.

PTI