New Delhi: The government is ready to discuss all the issues, including those to be raised by the Opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said here on Thursday, adding that he would request all the MPs to work “full time” to dispose of the business.

“The government is ready to discuss and debate any issue. Several issues would be raised by the opposition and the government would obviously give its response,” he said when asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s allegations against his predecessor Manmohan Singh and others vis-a-vis their meeting with Pakistani diplomats would disrupt the Houses.

“It is also the opposition’s responsibility to run Parliament. The Prime Minister has sought opposition’s cooperation for smooth functioning of Parliament,” he said.

Ananth Kumar said 25 Bills are listed in the Lok Sabha and 39 Bills are pending in the Rajya Sabha which would be taken up and disposed “according to priority”.

The most important business would be the Supplementary Demands for Grants, which is the first one after the implementation of GST; the 123rd Constitutional Amendment for setting up of National Commission for Backward Classes as a constitutional body; and the Bill against triple talaaq, he said.

Besides, the government would also bring Bills to turn three Ordinances into Acts, which include on the GST compensation to states and Amendments to the Indian Forest Act and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

However, a belligerent opposition is ready to corner the government on Modi’s allegations against Manmohan Singh, former Vice President Hamid Ansari and others, as also the disqualification from Rajya Sabha of veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar Ansari.

“The Prime Minister has levelled very serious allegations against a former Prime Minister, former Vice President, former Army chief and a few retired diplomats that they were conspiring along with Pakistan. The government must tell the Parliament as to what kind of conspiracy it was,” senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told media persons after the all-party meeting.

“If the allegations are true, the government must take action. If they are false, then those levelling such wild allegations must be punished.”

Indo-Asian News Service