‘Oppn ruckus helped pass the Finance bill’

NEW DELHI: The walk out and protests by Opposition parties on Wednesday may have made it easy for the ruling NDA to pass the Finance Bill, 2018 as well as the Appropriation Bill in less than a half hour amid the din, several MPs said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, finance minister Arun Jaitley moved 21 amendments in all and proposed three new clauses in the finance bill. While the treasury and ruling party benches were full after a whip issued by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition appeared divided. The Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) walked out when the amendments were being moved.

“When Opposition members remain present, they can always push amendments and seek clarifications,” said a member of the TMC. The Opposition has been disrupting assembly proceedings since the start of the session over several issues like the PNB fraud.

“If the disruptions would not have continued, a full debate on budget could have taken place,” said another Opposition member.

MPs from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) were not present in the House when the bills were passed. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Left MPs stood in their seats and protested against the lack of order and discussion in the LS as the bills were being passed.

The Opposition slammed the government for pushing through the budget without a discussion.

“The most important bill of the finance ministry has been passed without discussion or debate by strangling democracy,” said Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. “The united opposition has been trying to raise the issue for many days and we wanted a discussion on the bank fraud…The Speaker called the opposition parties but the government did not,” he said.