Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed hope that the Monsoon Session of Parliament will transact more business and see more decision making.

Addressing mediapersons outside Parliament, Modi said: “In the last session, some political parties had given the assurance that in the next session, some work will be done on priority. I am hopeful that good decisions and more decisions will be taken in this session.”

But, day one in the Rajya Sabha witnessed major protests from the Opposition and ended without transacting any business, while the Lok Sabha was adjourned after paying homage to a deceased sitting member.

The government is pushing hard to get key legislations such as the Constitution Amendment Bill for the Goods and Services Tax and Land Bill, beside others, passed during the session. The Monsoon Session started on Tuesday and will continue until August 13.

Congress demand However, the principal Opposition Congress party is adamant on the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in the Lalitgate episode and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Vyapam scam.

Congress leader Anand Sharma said that all the three should resign immediately. “There cannot be a different standard for NDA Ministers and UPA Ministers,” he said.

Meanwhile the ruling NDA said that it is willing to debate the issues and that the External Affairs Minister would make a statement.

The government fielded four central Ministers — Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi — to make a strong case. Jaitley said the Opposition has been offered all options for discussion but it did not seem interested. “We get a distinct and clear impression that the Opposition wants disturbance for some time; they don’t want a discussion. The government is publicly declaring — as we have indeed in the House — that we are ready for discussion in any form, at any time. In fact, in the morning, we had the option of starting the discussion, an offer which has not been accepted by the Opposition,” the Finance Minister said, while adding that the discussion started with Swaraj’s statement itself.

‘Nothing to hide’ “The government is willing to discuss everything. We have nothing to hide, nothing to worry,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.

He said that some BJP MPs had given notices for discussions on scams in Congress-ruled States. His deputy Naqvi took on the Congress saying that the government was ready for discussion on all issues but the Opposition party “wants only disruption”.

“This is nothing more than the noise of skeletons of Congress’ corruption. We are ready to discuss pending issues from ‘damaad’ to Quattrocchi,” he said, referring to the controversial land deals of Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and the Bofors scam.

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