Miffed over ‘traitor’ remark on Rahul, Congress set to stall Parl again
The first two weeks of the ongoing winter session of Parliament remained paralysed amid protests by the Congress-led Opposition over the Adani bribery charges and Sambhal violence. The ruling BJP added fuel to the fire by alleging that Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had links with billionaire George Soros and calling him a “traitor”.
These developments are set to cast a shadow over the third week of the session, which begins on Monday. The BJP’s “traitor” remark is likely to see the Congress going ballistic and disrupting the proceedings. However, it will be interesting to see what tactics do the two major constituents of the INDIA bloc — Samajwadi Party and TMC — adopt.
The last week’s proceedings were washed out and the government could not get the Railways Amendment Bill passed. However, both the SP and the TMC did not support the Congress’ protests over the said remark.
While the TMC had not supported the Congress protest over the Adani issue, saying it was not a people-centric matter, the SP is sulking after Rahul tried to visit violence-hit Sambhal.
Senior SP leaders alleged the Congress had not supported it on the Sambhal issue. However, with both Samajwadi Party and TMC having got the chance to raise the Sambhal and the issue of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, respectively, it remains to be seen what kind of floor strategy they adopt vis-a-vis the Congress in both Houses the coming week.
With only the Banking Amendment Bill having been passed out of the slew of Bills lined up for introduction and passage during the session, the Centre on its part will try and get the Railways Amendment Bill and the Disaster Management Bill passed this week.
The government had earlier accepted the Opposition’s demands of holding a discussion on Sambhal violence and the Constitution, in what seemed to be a sign of truce between the treasury and opposition benches. However, with both the sides trading allegations at each other, the functioning of Parliament in the coming week looks slim even though a two-day discussion has been announced on December 13 and 14 in the Lok Sabha on Constitution, in which PM Narendra Modi will also participate.
