Oppostion wants to send Talaq bill to select committee in Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Opposition parties coordinating to move jointly on the floor of the House in Parliament against the government, decided on Thursday morning, to demand that the Triple Talaq Bill be sent to a joint select committee, before the legislation came up in Lok Sabha at 2 pm.

Since numbers are stacked in favour of the treasury benches in Lok Sabha and hence the bill would be passed, the opposition parties are banking on their Rajya Sabha numbers, which is more than that of the government. Once the bill lands in Rajya Sabha, it could be a sent to a joint select committee. This was decided at a meeting of Opposition leaders, held at Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s chamber, soon after a business advisory committee (BAC) meeting of Rajya Sabha was held. Apart from Congress, floor leaders of Trinamool Congress, Left parties, DMK, RJD, TDP and other anti-BJP parties were present at the meeting.

When the bill was debated in Lok Sabha, before being passed on Thursday afternoon, all the opposition parties moved on the same line to oppose the criminalisation clause of the Bill and demanded that it be sent to a select committee for further vetting.

The anti-BJP opposition parties working together against the ruling BJP-led NDA, also refused to attend a meeting with the government to discuss an amendment of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, that the government had listed for Thursday’s business and then tried bringing it up at the BAC meeting. The amendment proposes to allow non-resident Indians to cast their votes for elections held in the country.

The angry opposition leaders vehemently objected to the proposal at the BAC meeting on Thursday, as the amendment bill was listed without being discussed earlier. The norm is to discuss an issue at the BAC and then list it, according to decisions taken at the meeting of floor leaders.

Hence when parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Goel and Narendra Singh Tomar reached out to all the opposition party leaders and invited them for a meeting in leader of the House (in Rajya Sabha) Arun Jaitley’s chamber, to discuss the amendment bill to enable NRI voting, all the leaders politely turned down the offer and instead held their own strategy meeting in Azad’s room.

The amendment to the Representation of the People’s Act 1951, to empower NRIs to vote, has already been passed by Lok Sabha earlier.

Thursday’s BAC of the Upper House, also decided that two other bills that had been passed by Lok Sabha will be sent to respective select committees. The two bills are: Rights of Transgender Persons Bill (2014) and Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018.