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Congress to approach like-minded parties to corner govt in Budget Session
The Congress’s parliamentary strategy group, which met on Friday, also decided to highlight “people’s issues”, including price rise, jobs and the economic situation, in the budget debates.
The Congress will coordinate with all like-minded parties in the upcoming Budget Session to raise questions on the government’s disinvestment process, including the sale of Air India, seek answers on the alleged Chinese incursions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and demand a compensation package for Covid-19 victims.
The party’s parliamentary strategy group, which met on Friday, also decided to highlight “people’s issues”, including price rise, jobs and the economic situation, in the budget debates.
“The party has decided to work with like-minded parties to raise issues like farmers distress, Chinese incursions, demand for relief package to Covid-19 victims, selling of Air India, and other key issues that affect the people at large,” said a party functionary, requesting anonymity.
The party’s willingness to question the disinvestment process of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government found a new impetus just a day after the Centre and the Tata group completed the transfer of the ailing national carrier.
A senior leader present in the meeting said, “We want to question the modus operandi of the government. How it waived off a large part of the debt and finally got just ₹2,700 crore from the buyers of Air India.”
Another leader, requesting anonymity, said during the meeting, it was also discussed how so many contentious issues remain unresolved after the transfer of Air India has been completed. While the Congress is not opposed to disinvestment of perennially ailing PSUs, they have objections in the way it is being conducted now, the leader added.
In the meeting, Congress’s president Sonia Gandhi sought opinion from all participants on picking issues. She also said that leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, will coordinate with other like-minded parties.
A senior leader later added that the Congress will frame common strategies with its allies and other Opposition parties as it did in the Winter session but a direct coordination with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is not guaranteed.
“TMC maintains it is not an electoral ally of the Congress. We also don’t take it for granted that the TMC would fully coordinate with us in floor management. They might have their own issues too, while our focus would be different,” said the second functionary.
The second leader also added that in the meeting, Gandhi spoke about the emphasis on people’s issues and how to raise such issues in the session which would have a short first half.
“We decided that the price rise, job loss and the economic situation would be taken up during the debate on the union budget in the first half of the upcoming session. our entire focus would be on people’s issues,” the leader added.
The budget session will start with the speech of the President on January 31, followed by presentation of Union Budget on February 1. The debates on the President’s speech and the general Budget will conclude before the two Houses go to recess and return for the second half of the session in March.
The Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group meeting, chaired by Gandhi, was attended by Kharge, party’s Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and senior leaders lie AK Antony, KC Venugopal, Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Manickam Tagore and Manish Tewari.
The Congress wants to reiterate the farmers’ issues and demand a law on minimum support price (MSP) as they didn’t find any opportunity in the previous session. In the monsoon session, the bill to repeal the three contentious farm laws were passed without any debate in both Houses, denying the Opposition an opportunity to flag their concerns on farm issues and demand a law for MSP.
