Despite engaging in discussions with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the pending legislative bills, the Congress is likely to revert to its confrontational line in the upcoming session of Parliament on Monday.
The party’s hostility is rooted in the Enforcement Directorate’s action against its senior leader and former Chief Minister of Haryana > Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has been accused of money laundering t hrough Associated Journals Limited (AJL), a non-profit publishing house that’s in the middle of The National Herald controversy. And the development is likely to delay the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Compensatory Afforestation (CAF) bills.
Speaking to The Hindu , senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the “government cannot create an atmosphere of give and take on Bills in the middle of deliberately hostile and biased and ill-timed action [against Hooda].”
Boycotts meeting Another sign of conflict was visible in Jammu and Kashmir, where Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived to meet the leaders of every significant political party. The Congress boycotted the meeting, criticising Prime Minister Narendara Modi as well as Mr. Singh for not “condemning” the use of “brute force” while attempting to quell the protests in the State.
Until Friday, when the news of ED’s action againt Mr. Hooda was yet to go viral, the Congress seemed soft on the CAF Bill after its senior leaders Jairam Ramesh and Digvijay Singh met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave and other BJP leaders.
After the meeting, Mr. Ramesh told reporters that the two parties had come to an agreement and that the party would not oppose the Bill in Parliament. But by Sunday noon, the party’s position had changed with its spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala telling The Hindu that the objections would still be raised since they “are in the interests of the people.”
Mr. Singhvi endorsed his line saying “we have to just wait and watch because the devil lies in the details.”
