Hitting out at Congress and the Left parties, Union Minister of State for Labour (independent charge) Bandaru Dattatreya on Saturday alleged that they were indulging in opportunistic politics on the JNU row and other issues, with their eyes on the elections in five states.
"When the government is running Parliament smoothly, it's painful that Congress was not even present (in the House) after having said what it wanted to. It's the responsibility of the Opposition to listen when the government is answering," he told reporters in Hyderabad.
"Escaping without listening and only criticizing is not right. This is unilateral. Congress has been having this unilateral attitude since beginning," he said.
The Left is singing the Congress's tune with the West Bengal polls in mind, he said adding they were targeting BJP and RSS for the minority vote bank as their future was at stake in the state elections this year.
He also wondered as to why Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not speak in the Parliament.
"They said they will question the government in the Parliament. They could not ask single question....the government was able to expose them. They had no answer on the JNU incident or other issues. They said they will put the government on the mat but they themselves ran away. The ministers answered very effectively and did not try to hide anything," he said.
The BJP leader however refused to comment on the Rohith Vemula suicide issue, saying the matter was sub judice and also being discussed in the Parliament.
Bills related to the Labour Ministry are likely to come up in the Parliament in coming days, he said.