Oppn blasts govt for passing Finance Bill without debate

The Congress on Wednesday dubbed the passage of the budget-related Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha without a discussion for even a second as a “black day” of the government’s conspiracy to gag Parliament and destroy the parliamentary democracy.

Expressing shock over passage of such an important Bill affecting people across the board without debate or exchange of views, party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters that the government never took a single step of calling the parties to break the impasse in both the Houses of Parliament as it is rattled and does not want any debate on the Nirav Modi scam sought by a united opposition.

The government is stifling the voice of the people by not allowing any discussion concerning their issues, be it unemployment or farmers’ problems or the latest report in Parliament on not giving enough money for the Army’s modernisation necessary to be always prepared for any eventuality, he said.

He said the Opposition was even prepared to discuss the issue under a calling-attention motion that does not entail voting for the government to fear, but with the same language of the adjournment notice that was repeatedly rejected by the Speaker. He said the government, however, took not a single step to create an atmosphere for a fruitful debate while pretending its preparedness for the discussion and sabotaging it by sponsoring agitation in the well by its allies.

“The entire opposition wants a debate on Nirav Modi’s escape from India and other banking frauds. We even met the Speaker yesterday on not guillotining the budgetary demands and allow the debate in any form which covers the language of our adjournment notice,” Scindia said as a discussion listed under Rule 193 on “alleged systemic irregularities in banking sector over the years and its impact on India economy” is not sufficient.

Other party MPs present with Scindia said the scope of the admitted discussion is so wide that it may even spill into the role of the finance ministers during Jawaharlal Nehru era by putting the vague phrase of irregularities “over the years” instead of the recent banking frauds.

They want a debate on the motion that reads: “The reported incidents of massive financial defaults and frauds of thousands of crores in various nationalized and other banks in the country which resulted in loot of public money and the perpetrators of the crime were allowed to leave the country despite complaints being made against them which needs to be addressed by government.”

Asked about the latest byelection results from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Scindia said the people across length and breadth of India have now recognised the BJP, speaking against them, be it in the Rajasthan bypolls or the Madhya Pradesh byelections. The change is coming, and a day is not far away when the people will show the door to the BJP, he added.

The Union Budget for 201819, the last full budget of the Modi government, as well as related finance and appropriation bills and the fourth supplementary budget for current fiscal, were on Wednesday passed by the Lok Sabha by a voice vote in 30 minutes straight, without debate amid the pandemonium continuing for the eighth day of the second phase of the budget session.

The hurry with which the government finished the financial business in a single day indicates its plan to wind up the session to escape the negative vibes from the issues like the PNB bank scam, Rafale aircraft deal and farmers’ plight that the Opposition wants to discuss.