The winter session of Parliament, of which only three days remain, has been a non-starter as far as official business is concerned, with the Modi government’s dramatic demonetisation decision — taken a little over a month ago — casting its shadow over the proceedings.
Nevertheless, the session thus far has been remarkable for four reasons.
One, the Trinamool Congress, a regional party, galvanised and sought to unite the Opposition to protest against the untold hardship caused to ordinary people by the Centre’s lack of planning for the fallout of demonetising two high value notes. Two, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s seven-and-a-half minute speech on the impact of demonetisation in the Rajya Sabha went viral. Three, former Deputy Prime Minister and BJP veteran LK Advani stunned his party colleagues when he read the riot act to them and the Lok Sabha Speaker for not managing the House better. Four, President Pranab Mukherjee publicly criticised the Opposition for disrupting Parliament.
Unity in House
Equally remarkable has been the level of Opposition solidarity in Parliament — though that has not as yet been reflected on the streets. As the session winds to a close, 16 Opposition parties have demonstrated their unity on the floor; on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, before the session starts, there will be more consultations.
So far, Opposition parties say they are firm that they want a discussion on demonetisation in the Lok Sabha under a provision that allows for voting; in the Rajya Sabha, they want an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saying that they support black money, followed by a discussion to which he should reply.
A senior Congress MP from the Upper House told The Hindu : “If the Reserve Bank governor had made the announcement, we would have accepted a reply by the Finance Minister. But the PM chose to make the announcement; so he should be the one to reply to the debate.”
The Congress is clearly hoping that there will be a discussion in the Lok Sabha so that its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, can make the explosive speech he has promised. Party sources said that a three-line whip has been issued to all MPs in preparation.
Last week, Mr. Gandhi had tried to speak in the House but was not allowed to do so by the government, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar taking the lead against it. If the BJP’s point was that Mr. Gandhi could not choose when to speak, the Congress had thought that this would have allowed for a thaw in the gridlock.
Ceding no ground
As for the BJP, while it has been inexplicable why it has not permitted a discussion in the Lok Sabha — where it enjoys a comfortable majority — with voting, party sources say that “the message from the top (the Prime Minister)” to the party’s parliamentary managers was not to concede any ground.
These sources said that instead of blocking a debate with voting, it should have bargained on changing the words in the resolution to remove the element of censure — that way, the BJP could have scored more points.
No GST consensus
And with the Centre and the States still unable to reach a consensus on the Goods and Services Tax, it now looks like the subsequent GST laws will be taken up by Parliament and State Assemblies only during the Budget Session next year. That means the GST rollout will have to be deferred till September next year.
