Opposition leaders have lost credibility: Rajya Sabha MP Shiv Pratap Shukla

Former Minister of State for Finance and Rajya Sabha MP Shiv Pratap Shukla has slammed the Opposition leaders on their meeting held on Friday via video conferencing under the leadership of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, and said that the opposition leaders have "lost credibility".

"Look at the opposition meeting, Sonia Gandhi met them via video conferencing. Except for the Shiv Sena, most of them have been partners in corruption for the tenure in past," Shukla said.

"The whole country has welcomed the economic package by the Prime Minister including farmers, so, Sonia Gandhi speaking against the package is no longer impacting the people of the country," he added.

At the meeting of opposition parties through video conferencing yesterday, Gandhi said, "All power is now concentrated in one office, the PMO. The spirit of federalism which is an integral part of our Constitution is all but forgotten. There is no indication either if the two Houses of Parliament or the Standing Committees will be summoned to meet."

On this, Shukla said, "The Prime Minister's Office has always been the Centre of power. At the time of UPA, of course, the power had gone from the Prime Minister's Office to 10 Janpath. The Prime Minister talks to his ministers. The Prime Minister talks to the Chief Ministers of the states. This Prime Minister has made the Centre of democratic power. We have not made the power centre separately."

Gandhi on Friday launched a strong attack on the BJP-led government over its handling of the situation created by coronavirus, saying it has no exit strategy from lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement Rs 20 lakh crore package and subsequent details had turned out to be "cruel joke" and the ruling dispensation has embarked on a "wild adventure of so-called reforms including a grand clearance sale of PSUs and repeal of labour laws".

In her opening remarks at the meet of opposition parties through video conferencing, the first such meeting since the lockdown was announced in March, she said "the defining image" of the pandemic has been the lakhs of migrant workers, many with children, walking hundreds of kilometres, without money, food or medicines, desperate to reach their home states.

( With inputs from ANI )