The stage is set for a stormy monsoon session of Parliament, beginning Monday, as the Opposition has geared up to corner the Narendra Modi government on a range of issues. DH file photo
The stage is set for a stormy monsoon session of Parliament, beginning Monday, as the Opposition has geared up to corner the Narendra Modi government on a range of issues.
At an all-party meeting convened by the government on Sunday, Opposition leaders said they want to raise issues such as the border stand-off with China, agrarian distress, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, increasing incidents of lynching and cow vigilantism and the “imperfect” implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.
Spread over 26 days, the session will have 19 sittings and the government has lined up heavy legislative agenda. It plans to introduce 16 new bills, push for the passage of 18 pending draft legislation and seek the approval of Parliament for the supplementary demand for grants.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, accused the Modi government of “closing all doors for dialogue” to resolve the Kashmir situation, which has led to “political suffocation” of the region.
In a bid to take the sting out of the Opposition attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the incidents of cow vigilantism and asked state governments to initiate stern action against anti-social elements trying to spread anarchy in the name of cow protection.
Shortest session
CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said this was probably the shortest monsoon session in India’s Parliamentary history.
“This is impossible, unless the government plans to pass all these bills and grants in the din minus any discussion. This is disastrous for our democracy,” Yechury told reporters here, referring to the heavy legislative agenda.