Stormy Monsoon session likely as Oppn set to protest

New Delhi: Parliament appears headed for a stormy monsoon session as opposition parties gear up to corner the Centre over the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, inflation, unemployment and alleged collapse of constitutional bodies beginning Monday, a day after the government urged all parties to cooperate for a smooth functioning of the House.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi announced on Sunday that the government was ready to discuss all issues approved by the chair but sought support to clear the legislative agenda. He also announced that on July 19, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will brief an all-party meeting on the situation in Sri Lanka.

The monsoon session of Parliament will end on August 12.

cantonments, a legislation to rationalise the government’s role and enable cooperative societies to compete in the new economic environment and a proposed law to turn NITIE Mumbai into IIM Mumbai. Joshi said that for this session, tentatively, 32 legislative items have been identified for being taken up out of which 14 items have already been finalised.

Two all-party meetings were held on Sunday — one led by Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu and the other by Joshi — to ensure a fruitful session. In his last all-party meeting before his term ends on August 10, Naidu sought a “farewell gift” from various parties in the form of a “meaningful and productive session”.

Attended by 41 leaders — the highest number ever for such a meeting — the meeting’s focus was to request all parties to uphold the dignity and decorum of the House of Elders, people aware of the matter said.

Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and others appreciated “Naidu’s efforts for effective functioning of the House during the last five years”, while some others referred to Naidu’s concern for orderly conduct and discipline in the House.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described Naidu as a “good man who will be missed” and quipped that “as a token of acknowledgement of your contributions, it is appropriate for the government to create a post of ‘Chairman Emeritus’”. Leader of the Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal, pointed out that bidding farewell to Naidu at the meeting was a little premature as he will preside over the monsoon session.

Earlier in the day, the meeting called by Joshi, however, saw a more combative Opposition. The Congress and other opposition parties questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s absence at the all-party meeting. Reacting to the Congress’s jibe, Joshi said the Opposition should recall how many times in the past the Prime Ministers have attended these meeting.

“Before 2014, the PM never came for the all-party meeting. When the Congress was ruling, only the chief whip of the ruling party took the meeting; subsequently, some ministers did so too. Today, the deputy leader and the most senior leader in the Cabinet Rajnath Singh is presiding over the meeting, the leader of the Rajya Sabha is present and the parliamentary affairs minister is present,” Joshi said.

Joshi said the session will provide a total of 18 sittings spread over a period of 26 days.

The defence minister said necessary efforts will be made by the government to discuss the matters of urgent public importance besides the usual legislative business in Parliament.

The Congress later issued a statement to say it wanted a “smooth conduct of business of the House, so that all important issues of public interest can be raised and addressed in Parliament”. It, however, demanded that “more time be devoted to non-government business in the form of Short Duration Discussions, Calling Attention motions, special mentions, etc”.

Kharge put forth 13 topical issues which were shortlisted by the Congress for discussion during the monsoon session. The list includes alleged attacks on the federal structure, the Agnipath scheme for army recruitment, the DHFL bank fraud, uncontrolled inflation, rising unemployment, fiscal and rupee value crisis, hate speech and Chinese incursion and foreign policy failures.

At the meeting, some members raised the new list of unparliamentary words but Joshi downplayed the controversy and said: “Such an exercise is carried out from time to time and the list has existed since 1954.”

On a circular restricting dharnas, prayers and protests in Parliament, he said: “A normal circular has been brought out by the Rajya Sabha saying that there should not be any dharnas. These types of circulars are brought out before every session since they do not have any major issues against the govt, it is running smoothly under leadership of Narendra Modi.”

On the first day of the monsoon session on Monday, the Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022 will be taken up in the Rajya Sabha.