BJP likely to bring controversial bill back to Rajya Sabha in budget session as that will give party time to attack Congress ‘doublespeak’.
New Delhi: Just a week ago, the BJP rushed the triple talaq bill through the Lok Sabha in a single day, but now, it has apparently gone into cold storage.
On the penultimate day of the winter session of Parliament, the party’s strategists seem to have decided against pushing the bill through the upper house on Friday as the opposition has come together to stall it.
Party sources said the government is now thinking of bringing in the bill in the budget session, and use the intervening period to reach out to the public and “expose the doublespeak of the opposition parties on the bill”.
“We will apprise people of the anti-minority stand of the Congress and its allies. Now, people will know that the party dubbed as “anti-minority” is standing for their rights, whereas those which appear to side with minorities claiming to be their well-wishers have stalled the bill,” said a senior BJP leader.
The upper house is likely to finish its official business in the first half of Friday, since many MPs are usually in a rush to catch their flights home.
Another war of words
The face-off between the government and opposition parties over the bill in the Rajya Sabha continued Thursday. Leader of the house Arun Jaitley insisted on a debate on the bill as the government stood its ground. “Now, people know who is opposing the bill,” said Jaitley, drawing jeers from the Congress.
Leader of the opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad also opposed the statement, while sticking to the Congress’s stand that more debate was needed on the bill. “We are not against the bill; it needs to be sent to a select committee,” said Azad.
While the BJP was able to power the bill through the Lok Sabha on the basis of its majority, it doesn’t have the numbers to do the same in the Rajya Sabha. As a result, the Congress, which voted in favour of the bill in the lower house, has returned to its demand for amendments and sending it to a select committee.