Comments
Opposition parties will meet here on Monday to finalise the floor strategy for the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Wednesday. The statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman targeting the Opposition have irked the Congress and the party will demand an explanation from Modi during the session.
The Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, said his party would challenge Modi to explain his allegations against the party. “The Congress does not need any certification of nationalism from somebody who are the descendants of not only non-participants of the freedom movement but also active collaborators of the British,” Sharma told reporters on Sunday.
Opposition meet
He said all Opposition parties would meet and decide on the issues that need to be raised in Parliament, such as the farm crisis and bank frauds. “Modi made some irresponsible statements on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat elections, too. When asked about it in Parliament, he had nothing to say. He still has time to apologise and save the dignity of the PMO,” Sharma added.
Sharma claimed that BJP leaders are spreading falsehood about past governments. “Between 2004 and 2014, under the UPA, 140 million people were uplifted from poverty. This is a World Bank report. Meanwhile, during the Modi government, millions of people suffered due to ill-thought-out policies such as demonetisation,” the former Minister said.
Speaker calls for meet
Parliament Affairs Ministry and the Speaker’s office are also holding separate meetings of all parties on Tuesday.
The Centre has been reaching out to various parties for the smooth running of the House.
The Opposition, on the other hand, has been maintaining that the BJP does not want to hold the session and the provocative statements are aimed at disturbing the House proceedings.
4 nominated to Rajya Sabha
Meanwhile, the Centre has taken steps to strengthen its grip on the Rajya Sabha.
It has nominated RSS activist Ram Shakal, academic Rakesh Sinha, sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra and dancer Sonal Mansingh to the Upper House.
There are four vacancies in the Rajya Sabha for nominated members. This step will have an impact on the collective bargaining power of the Opposition to elect its candidate as Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.