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The opposition parties will meet in the morning to develop their strategy for both houses of Parliament. The second stage of the budget session will start today, with the government saying its priority is to pass the finance bill and the opposition planning to raise issues such as action by central agencies against political rivals in the BJP and allegations against the Adani Group. Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha and Congress Speaker Mallikarjun Kharge said they want to play a constructive role in holding the government to account and called for a discussion in the House on "all the burning issues facing the nation."
At a meeting on Sunday, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar sought advice from the leaders of various political parties on ways to curb the disruption in the House. Opposition members have raised the issue of alleged misuse of central agencies against non-BJP governments and the decision to appoint Mr Dhankhar's personal staff to parliamentary committees.
The opposition parties will meet in the morning to develop their strategy for both houses of Parliament. Protests over the Hindenburg-Adani line had cast a shadow over the first half of the budget session.
Manickam Tagore, Congress whip in Lok Sabha, told PTI that his party wants the opposition to take a united stand.
"We will continue to raise people's issues: price gouging, LPG cost, Adani, agency misuse, farmer issues, governors intervention. We will continue to work with all like-minded parties. Tomorrow's meeting is called for this purpose because they want the opposition to be united," he said. Opposition parties are also likely to vehemently raise the issue of recent CBI and Enforcement Directorate raids on their leaders, some of whom have been questioned and even arrested in several cases accused the BJP-led central government of abusing central agencies to target leaders of rival BJP parties.
The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Arjunram Meghwal, told PTI on Sunday that the government's top priority was to pass the Finance Bill. Discussions will take place on grant applications from ministries including railways, Panchayati Raj, tourism, culture and health, he said.
The budget session, which began on January 31, is scheduled to end on April 6. Parliament meets after a month-long suspension that allows various parliamentary groups to review allocations made in the Union budget for different ministries.
On Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will submit additional grant applications – second batch for 2022-23. He will also present the budget of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for the year 2023-24 in Lok Sabha. The Union Territory is currently under Central rule. Both items are listed in the Lok Sabha series.
