Monday, May 2 2005 11:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Charging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with "only being bothered about saving his chair", the Opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) decided to continue indefinitely its boycott of both Houses of Parliament but said it would participate in the voting of the Finance Bill in Lok Sabha today (May 2, 2005).

After a 90-minute meeting of the NDA Parliamentary party chaired by former Prime Minister and alliance chairman Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deputy leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters that the NDA Coordination Committee would meet again after the voting on the Finance Bill later in the day to chalk out their future course of action.

Sushma said the decision to continue with the three-day boycott was taken as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government "failed to come up with any satisfactory response" to break the impasse.

She described as a "mere formality" the Prime Minister's telephone calls to leaders of Opposition in both Houses urging them to reconsider their decision.

The meeting also adopted a resolution accusing the UPA of treating the Opposition as its "enemy" and of being "hostile and vindictive" towards it.

Maintaining that the matters "remained where they were", the resolution regretted that the framing of charges against a Minister (Railway Minister Laloo Prasad) "does not disturb" the Prime Minister and he remained "insensitive" towards it.

"What matters to him (the Prime Minister) is to save his own chair," said the resolution read out to reporters by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, which asked Manmohan Singh to judge for himself whether it was "morally tenable".

The NDA meeting took exception to ruling coalition allies giving the "go by to norms" of political conduct and disrupting Parliament proceedings on "frivolous issues".

Asked what would "satisfy" the Opposition to lift its boycott of Parliament, Swaraj said, "The issue is of the UPA's attitude towards the Opposition, which deserved to be given due respect as it was as much part of the political system as the Treasury benches."

She said the decision to boycott was taken out of "anger and agony" and, as the leader of the coalition, the Prime Minister should "take responsibility" for the conduct of his allies as well and he cannot shirk away from it saying the fault lay with the coalition partner.

The BJP spokesperson particularly took exception to the RJD members rushing to the Well of the House when the leader of Opposition rose to speak.

"We (NDA Government) had always given full opportunity to the leaders of Opposition," she said and added, "We expect the Government to at least take an initiative to assure us that the Opposition would be given full respect and allowed to be heard."

"The ball is in the Government's court," Sushma said.

The Parliamentary Party meeting came a day after the meeting of top NDA leaders, chaired by leader of Opposition L K Advani, which could not arrive at a consensus on the boycott issue.

Sources said the decision to take part in the Finance Bill was taken following sharp divisions within the alliance on the boycott issue.

The alliance MPs will also not sign the registers of both Houses, they said.