Another parliament washout on the anvil
Both BJP, Cong will attack each other on Uttarakhand, Ishrat Jahan issues
With the Congress set to corner the government over the dismissal of the Uttarakhand government and the ruling BJP intending to strongly counter it over “faulty” investigation in cases related to Ishrat Jahan and Lt. Col. Shrikant Purohit, yet another parliament session, this one beginning on Monday, looks set for a washout.
The possibility of the two camps reconciling are remote as the confrontation is at the very top level, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) determined to take on Congress president Sonia Gandhi for “influencing changes” in the Ishrat Jahan affidavit, while the Congress too finds fault with no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
“We do not see any harmony. The acrimonious mood will thus prevail even in both houses in parliament. You can expect washout of another session,” former Samajwadi Party MP Shailendra Kumar told IANS here.
Kumar’s pessimism is not isolated as many sitting lawmakers — from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha - too feel that scenes of pandemonium would be repeated once again and the much-required Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill will continue to remain stalled.
Moreover, the ruling party has also stepped up attack on former home minister P. Chidambaram alleging that his decision to alter the affidavit on Ishrat Jahan was probably at the instance of higher ups in his party.
“All these certainly seem to slam Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and therefore, reconciliation between BJP and Congress does not appear likely,” the Samajwadi Party leader said.
In fact, the sentiment among non-Congress and non-BJP parties is that the confrontation between the ruling party and the opposition camp has got further aggravated.
“It has become a pattern. Every time on the eve of the parliament sessions, Congress and BJP instead of reaching out to each other try to raise the level of confrontation. The casualty is the smooth functioning of parliament,” a member of Odisha-based regional party Biju Janata Dal told IANS.
Besides eyeing the passage of long-pending Goods and Service Tax Bill, the fate of the National Waterways Transportation Bill, Consumer Protection Bill and the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that seek to improve ease of doing business also hang in the balance. The parliamentary panel’s report on the vexed land acquisition bill is also awaited.