Top BJP leaders, including Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday discussed the party’s strategy to be adopted for the Winter Session of Parliament in the wake of the decision of the Congress-led Opposition to raise the issue of alleged intolerance in the country. The Government wants to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament for the passage of important pending legislations — including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.
The Government may consider discussing issues of alleged ‘intolerance’ if so raised by the Opposition in either of the two Houses.
According to sources, the BJP leaders maintained that they have reached out to Opposition leaders and are willing to consider “all suggestions”, which could help in smooth conduct of both the Houses and positively contribute to the passing of key legislations during the session which would last 29 days.
The discussions were also attended by Union Minister Manohar Parrikar and Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
The meeting discussed ways to facilitate passage of GST Bill in the Upper House where the Opposition has the majority vis-à-vis the Government. The GST, a constitutional amendment Bill, is required to be passed by a majority of two-third votes in each of the two Houses.
The Government had initially wanted to implement GST from April 1, 2016, but later pushed its implementation to the beginning of any month in 2016-17.
Another crucial Bill pending before Parliament is the controversial land Acquisition Bill. The Joint Parliamentary Committee is to give its report on the Bill on the last day of the first week of Parliament. Other pending Bills are the Real Estate Bill, the Factories Amendment Bill and the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children Bill.
Sources said the leaders took view of “certain issues” which were mainly fall “in the purview of the State Governments”. However, they maintained that the Government would not be averse to discussing these issues in Parliament as they were already “in the public domain”, sources said referring to the debate of alleged intolerance in the country.
Answering a question after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Naidu said he had met the Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the past and would again do so if so required.
BJP Ministers have already interacted with Congress leader in the lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and other Opposition floor managers. Jaitley had met Congress leader Rahul last week to invite him to his daughter’s marriage on December 9.
Meanwhike, Congress has lined up “like-minded” parties, especially the TMC, the JD(U) and the left to take on the Government over a range of issues -- including “growing intolerance”, atrocities on Dalits and minorities, FDI clearance, land acquisition Bill, the lalitgate, rising prices of pulses -- and above all foreign tours of the Prime Minister. The party is also expected to raise demand for sacking of three Union Ministers -- Gen V K Singh, Mahesh Sharma and Sanjeev Baliyan -- for their controversial statements.
The party will also demand that the Prime Minister speak on the intolerance issue in Parliament.
The Congress leader in the lok Sabha said that the party is ready to cooperate. “But if the Government want our cooperation, they will also have to reach out,” he said.
“We also expect full cooperation from the Speaker for smooth running of the House,” Kharge said in the wake of reports that Sumitra Mahajan has written to members to ensure acceptable decorum in the House in the Session.
“Give and take is the essence of Parliamentary democracy. It is not one-way traffic in which the Opposition supports all the measures irrespective of their deficiencies and the Government fails to amend them,” he said.