Thursday, May 12 2005 07:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Congress yesterday (May 11, 2005) rubbished Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government's report card of its one-year rule and said this was "illogical" on the part of those who have been boycotting Parliament abdicating their constitutional responsibilities.

"Such a remark from those absent from Parliament after boycotting it, is illogical. Their criticism would have been justifiable if they were concerned with the House proceedings and they had participated in the discussion of different issues," Party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters.

He said the Congress party which is leading the UPA has repeatedly requested the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Opposition to come back and participate in the Parliament proceedings, "but even after that if they are seeking an account of the Manmohan Singh Government's one year rule, we will come out in detail in this regard shortly".

He said the main difference between UPA and NDA was, "We fulfilled our commitments to people, unlike NDA which claimed achievements through its India Shining Campaign without achieving anything."

Giving a long list of initiatives taken by the UPA Government in several fields, particularly in Education, health, Rural employment, Agriculture and farmers, he said it was now known how much Budget allocation has been done by this Government when the second Budget was presented in February.

"No criticism can deny these facts," he said and added that one year was not enough for any Government but "its policy decisions on these issues demonstrate Government's commitment to the people".