By IANS,
New Delhi : Parliament opens after a month-long break Thursday with the government on decidedly shaky ground as it tries to think of ways to steer crucial bills through an unhelpful opposition, decides strategy on how to save the finance bill and prepares to combat criticism on internal security issues.
Three legislative measures of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government are hanging fire — the flagship women’s reservation bill as well as food security and civil nuclear liability bills.
To compound its problems, the government faces a combative opposition, united on the issue of price rise and on other issues like internal security in the wake of the April 6 Maoist attack in Chattisgarh in which 76 security personnel were killed.
If all this wasn’t enough, the row over Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor’s links to the Kochi team of cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL) has already sparked demands for his resignation and will provide fresh grist to the opposition mill.
The first part of the budget session of parliament was adjourned March 16 and some of the ground seems to have shifted in the month since.
The government appears to be on its weakest wicket since it came to power in May last year with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) deciding to join the anti-Congress, anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposition like the Left parties to move a cut motion in parliament demanding the rollback in prices of petrol, diesel and fertiliser.
The SP and the RJD withdrew their outside support to the government over the women’s reservation bill, which promises 33 percent quota to women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislature and was passed in the Rajya Sabha before the break.
The BJP has also announced that it would move a cut motion on the finance bill in the Lok Sabha. When budget proposals are presented before parliament for approval, an MP can question a budgetary allocation in the form of a cut motion. If that is implemented, it amounts to a vote of no confidence in the government, which is then obliged to quit.
Asked whether the party would bring cut motions and amendments to the finance bill, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said “yes”, but he did not elaborate.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader in Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia said: “We will press for cut motion.”
The government, however, appears confident that the cut motions to be moved by the opposition will be defeated.
“We are confident that the cut motion to be moved by the oppostion will be defeated. We have got the required numbers,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V. Narayanasamy told IANS.
The other tension for the government is the fate of the women’s reservation bill.
“We are waiting for the outcome of the meeting of leaders of political parties in the Lok Sabha to be convened by the government soon,” a government source close to the development said.
The meeting is expected to be held early next week, he said.
The CPI-M is also waiting for the outcome of the meeting, Acharia said.
Though it wants the bill to be passed in the Lok Sabha in its present form, the BJP is opposed to it being passed in the Lok Sabha the way it was in the Rajya Sabha when marshals physically evicted protesting MPs.
Efforts are also on to introduce the food security bill in the second part of the session.
“All efforts are being done to introduce the bill in the second part of the session after making necessary changes,” a minister told IANS.
An empowered group of ministers (eGoM) on food had decided last week to defer a decision on the draft food security bill till the Planning Commission gives a report on the number of below poverty line(BPL) families qualifying for the ambitious welfare scheme.
On the civil nuclear liability bill, which will cap the compensation to be paid in case of disaster, there is no ambiguity. The Left parties and the BJP have said they would not allow the government to introduce the civil nuclear liability bill in the present form.