Winter session likely to be fiery affair

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 17

With the winter session of Parliament set to begin tomorrow, issues such as the situation in J&K, economic slowdown and Citizenship Amendment Bill are expected to be the flashpoint between the ruling and Opposition benches. PM Narendra Modi assured leaders at an all-party meeting here today that the government was ready to discuss every issue even as the Opposition demanded that detained Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah should be allowed to attend the session.

Modi, in his customary remarks at a session eve all-party meeting, asserted that the government was ready to discuss every issue and exhorted everyone to make the session as productive as the last one when Parliament nod was given to the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, nullifying Article 370, and several other important Bills, including the one making instant talaq by Muslim men illegal. Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the continuing “illegal” detention of mainstream leaders in J&K and said they would take up economic slowdown and unemployment issues. 

The BJP-led NDA left the Opposition stunned in the last session, winning over regional parties, especially in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling party lacked majority, to get a host of Bills passed. The Congress-led grouping has now some reason to feel emboldened with its better-than-expected performance in the recent Assembly polls. Also, Shiv Sena snapping ties with the BJP and reports of economic slowdown have provided some ammunition to the Opposition. The 18 Sena MPs in the Lok Sabha and three in the Rajya Sabha have been allotted seats in the Opposition rows.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court verdict in the Ayodhya case has come as a booster for the saffron camp. The government has listed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, a key BJP plank which is aimed at granting nationality to non-Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries, for passage in this session. The Modi government had introduced the Bill in its previous tenure but could not push it through due to vehement protests by Opposition parties.

The government plans to seek Parliament’s nod to two crucial ordinances. An ordinance reducing corporate tax rate for new and domestic manufacturing companies to arrest slowdown was issued in September to give effect to amendments in the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Finance Act, 2019. The second ordinance, also issued in September, banned the sale, manufacture and storage of e-cigarettes and similar products.