New Delhi: Despite their diminishing strength, opposition parties are likely to give a tough time to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha starting Monday.
There were enough indications of it during the first all party meeting called by the Modi government Sunday, which was attended by the Prime Minister among others. Opposition parties including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), DMK, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Left parties attended the meeting.
Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien and his colleague from Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, raised the issue of the Centre “deliberately targeting states”, and urged the Modi government to “stop interfering” in state matters. This comes in the backdrop of escalating violence in West Bengal and a bitter political confrontation between the TMC-led West Bengal government and the BJP-led Centre.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and the CPI’s D Raja also raised the issue of federalism in the meeting. Sources said Azad raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and said that it’s wasn’t just a law and order problem. “Azad said that Kashmir is a political problem and the government should come out with a political solution,” a senior leader who attended the meeting told ThePrint.
Raja also raised the issue of Centre “unilaterally taking decisions” on many issues. “In the Constitution many subjects are in the concurrent list such as education,” Raja told ThePrint. “But the Centre takes unilateral decision, which is not correct. Take for instance the National Education Policy, which the Centre is pushing.”
On Opposition agenda, poll reforms, women’s reservation bill
Opposition leaders said they will raise the issue of electoral reforms in this session. Senior TMC leaders including O’Brien said that they will push for paper ballots.
The Congress, TMC and the CPI are expected to press for the passage of the women’s reservation bill in the current session.
Besides, the TMC is also going to raise the issue of the government pushing ordinances. “In the spirit of the Constitution, this should be done only as an ‘emergency’ tool. Unfortunately, in the 16th Lok Sabha it was blatantly over used,” Bandyopadhyay said. “The house saw the highest percentage of ordinances in 70 years.”
But by and large, the opposition parties are in a state of disarray.
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The Congress, which is the main opposition party with 52 members is yet to announce its leader of the house in the Lok Sabha. So far, the opposition parties have not even met to discuss floor coordination among their members.
The Parliament session, which will conclude on 26 July, will see important legislative business being taken up including the presentation of the budget on 5 July.
Work cohesively with government: PM
Addressing floor leaders of various parties in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday called on them to work cohesively with the government in running the House smoothly and to collectively address issues related to the welfare of people.
Modi urged all leaders to introspect whether members of Parliament are able to fulfil peoples’ aspirations as their representatives, a government release said. “We are for the people; we cannot win hearts by disrupting the functioning of the Parliament,” Modi said. “All parties must keep political differences aside and commit themselves to tirelessly work in the direction of the nation’s progress.”
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Parliamentary Affairs minister Prahlad Joshi said that in order to build mutual trust among members of all parties in the Parliament, the PM has invited party presidents of all political parties with representation in the Parliament, on 19 June, and MPs of both Houses, on 20 June, to freely interact and exchange views with the government.