A week before the Winter Session of Parliament is to begin, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has raked up controversy around Rahul Gandhi’s nationality. This is bound to douse any hope the government may have had of the Congress’ cooperation on issues like the GST Bill. However, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman believes the Opposition will respond positively to the government’s efforts to ensure smooth conduct of Parliament. In an interview to BusinessLine , Sitharaman spoke of a range of subjects – from the “intolerance” debate to GST – and stressed that far from seeking confrontation, the intent is to engage the Opposition in constructive debate. Excerpts:

The government seems to be spoiling for another confrontation with the Opposition…

On the contrary, the government has consistently maintained that it wants to engage with the Opposition and have substantive debate, not just on pending legislation but also on all contemporary issues driving public discourse, including what is being termed as [the] “intolerance” debate.

There is the business of politics wherein you have Congress President Sonia Gandhi meeting the President over intolerance, “Award Wapsi” and so on, and Dr Subramanian Swamy raising a certain issue. But very little has been said about the approach of the government and the signals that are being sent.

The Leader of the Upper House, our Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has met Rahul Gandhi. Here is a senior leader reaching out to the leadership of the principal Opposition party. Does it not tell you anything about the kind of atmospherics the government wants to create? Barring what the individual MPs and party members have been saying, I wish the more considered approach of senior ministers is not overlooked.

I concede that it is the government that has to yield and ensure that Parliament functions. But while that is clearly being done, you can’t expect that we will not respond politically even to the most outrageous utterances and acts of the Opposition. If something is downright offensive, the ruling party’s political response cannot, in all fairness, be construed as an attempt to derail the business of Parliament.

To what are you referring?

Mani Shankar Aiyar, a career diplomat and former minister, seeks the help of Pakistan in dismantling a democratically-elected government. Then you have Salman Khurshid, another former minister who has served in the foreign office, undermining India’s position to a Pakistani audience. If one characterises Dr Swamy’s averments as leading to obstruction of government business in Parliament, how is one to describe a senior Congress leader asking Pakistan for help in bringing down a BJP Government?

Even in the face of such grave provocation, the responses of the government spokespersons have been restrained and we have been reaching out to the Opposition.

You have said you are ready to debate the ‘intolerance’ issue in Parliament. How do you define the contours of the debate from the Treasury Benches?

I cannot speak for the parliamentary party as I am not privy to the discussions, if any, have taken place among our leaders. What I can say is that the whole business of “Award Wapsi” raises more questions than it answers.

Please elaborate

The first question it raises is about the conditions that push an intellectual/writer to return an award in protest. Were these conditions not prevalent five years ago? A decade, two decades back? During the 1984 riots? And I am not even going back to the Emergency. Every day, unconnected incidents that happened mostly in non-BJP ruled States are being clubbed together to attack the Union Government, while the relevant provincial governments are being spared.

What is the connection between the Kalburgi murder and a Dalit family being burnt alive in Haryana? And when you attack Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana Chief Minister) for inaction, why is Akhilesh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh CM) being spared for Dadri? The irony is that incidents that occurred a few years ago are now being clubbed to say that environment is being vitiated, and the Congress President chooses to lodge a protest with the President.

The rise of a non-left political alternative has made some people uncomfortable. Every new appointment is being questioned on grounds of so and so being “pro-RSS”. No one was so far branded pro-CPM or even pro-Maoist, even though there are reasonable grounds for questioning the appointment in the Planning Commission of a person who served prison for his sympathies for the Maoists.

Just because we have been restrained does not mean there are no arguments. We have been accused of vitiating the campaign during the Bihar elections. How can the Centre be possibly accused for the most unfortunate incident that happened in Dadri?

Even statements by the PM, were meant to create communal polarisation.

Are you saying there was no substance in what the PM said? Is it not a fact that there was am attempt to carve out communal reservation from the OBC pie? No one commented at that time, but if the PM chooses to raise it, it gets branded as communal.

We welcome criticism; but surely we too have the right to speak when the criticism is consistently disproportionate and unfair.

Do you seriously believe there is hope for GST in the coming session?

The Finance Minister has been very keen and accommodating of all views. The Congress’ suggestions are welcome as are other parties’. Unfortunately, the Empowered Committee Chairman and [former] Kerala Finance Minister KM Mani has had to resign for entirely non-GST reasons. Another chairman has to be appointed. Notwithstanding questions raised by some experts, we believe it would lead to a simplified tax regime, improve tax compliance and lead to 1-1.5 per cent increase in the GDP.

There has been criticism, even from the BJP, about export decline, and inflation – particularly in food items.

Unbridled inflation has been brought under control with the exception of certain oddities like daal , tomatoes and onions that can be explained. So far as exports are concerned, I believe the domestic market for demand and supply continues to be buoyant. While it is true that exports have been falling in the last ten months, there are some factors one needs to consider while analysing this decline. The drop in crude oil prices did provide relief but it has also led to downgrading of the value of our exports. If we are to asses export decline, I would say that it is more in value than in volume. There is also a general slowdown of world economy. Our exports are realising far less in value than before.

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