As Parliament session resumes today, Oppn looks set to corner govt

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech to party MPs, Rahul Gandhi-led kisan rally and Sitaram Yechury’s anointment as the CPI(M) party chief — all on Sunday — charged up the political arena ahead of the Parliament session starting from Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech to party MPs, Rahul Gandhi-led kisan rally and Sitaram Yechury’s anointment as the CPI(M) party chief — all on Sunday — charged up the political arena ahead of the Parliament session starting from Monday.

The PM told his party MPs that he was expecting the session to be full of “outcomes” and said, “It is more beneficial if the Opposition attacks government, however fierce it may be, inside Parliament.”

But with no hope of any reconciliation between the government and the combined Opposition of Congress-Left-Trinamool on the land bill, the recent merger of SP, JD(U) and RJD may further complicate the passage of the contentious legislation.

The BJP managers, according to sources, will focus more on the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the upcoming session. The government is also hopeful about passing the black money bill in Parliament.

The land bill is set to remain at the centre of the storm with both Congress and the NDA government upping their ante over the legislation. Parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu accused the Congress of “politicising the land acquisition issue” even at the cost of being “unmindful of the consequences for development of the country.”

He also took potshots at CPI(M): “Communist cliches like bourgeois, revisionists, neo-revisionists, feudal and capitalist systems have lost their meaning.”

The second half of the Budget session in Lok Sabha will run from April 20 to May 8 and have 13 working days, out of which the government will have barely three days to pass the ambitious GST bill and other legislative agenda.

Ten days are earmarked for the passage of the finance bill and the related demand for grants of different ministries.

The Rajya Sabha, prorogued to re-promulgate the land ordinance, will meet on April 23 and work till May 11.

The Opposition is keeping its powders dry to attack the government on issues such as the growing RSS clout in social issues, beef ban, black money and the PM’s foreign trip.