Ahead of monsoon session, parties begin plotting and planning
The three-week monsoon session will start Tuesday next week
New Delhi: With the monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to begin on 21 July, the Narendra Modi government and Opposition parties are gearing up for what is expected to be yet another stormy session . Both sides are attempting to outdo each other by strategizing a week ahead to be able to push their respective agendas through. The three-week monsoon session will start Tuesday next week.
Reports suggest that while Modi hopes to use a meeting of the NITI Aayog on 15 July to convince chief ministers to back the controversial land Bill, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has invited leaders of all like-minded parties to an Iftar dinner on Monday as a show of strength of a united Opposition.
Several chief ministers, including nine Congress chief ministers as well as West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee have decided to boycott the NITI Aayog meeting where the land Bill will be discussed.
Pressure from the Opposition in the last session of Parliament had forced the government to send the bill to a joint committee of the two houses which was asked to submit its report on the first day of the monsoon session. NDTV reports that the committee’s head had written to the Lok Sabha Speaker, seeking a week’s extension and this delay may not give the government enough time to pass the bill in the House. Further, the government realises that pushing the bill aggressively might have a fallout in Bihar where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is desperate to do well, say sources.
With top BJP ministers and chief ministers being accused of charges ranging from impropriety to corruption and murder last week, there is enough ammunition with the Opposition to sharpen its attack. The ruling party’s staunch defence of its party people and the Prime Minister’s silence on the issue has only strengthened the Opposition’s resolve not to permit the two Houses to function till the government responds satisfactorily to its demand.
Over the weekend, the Congress said it plans to raise the recent issues of corruption, including the Lalit Modi row and the Vyapam scam, with the Modi government in the upcoming Parliament session. Former union minister P. Chidambaram alleged that former IPL chief Lalit Modi had committed a crime against the nation and it was wrong for external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to “help" him.
“It is now BJP’s time to face the music," a senior Congress leader said, recalling how the BJP had disrupted the entire winter session of Parliament on the 2G spectrum issue when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power. Read more
DNA reports that with the "who’s who" of anti-BJP politics expected to be present on Monday’s Iftar party, considerable significance is being attached to the get-together ahead of the monsoon session.
Among the leaders invited are Mulayam Singh (SP), Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav (Janata Dal-United), Mayawati (Bahujan Samaj Party), Sharad Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), H.D. Deve Gowda (Janata Dal-Secular), E. Ahmed (Indian Union Muslim League), Kanimozhi (DMK), D. Raja (CPI), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference) and Sudip Bandhopadhyay (Trinamool Congress).
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad has expressed his inability to attend as he is hosting an Iftar party in Patna. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen, part of the Congress-led UPA till two years ago, and the AIUDF, which has a tie-up with the Congress in Assam, have also been invited. Read more
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