Parliament Budget session starts today

New Delhi, Jan. 28: The crucial Budget session of Parliament is set for a stormy start with as many as 18 opposition parties announcing their decision to boycott the President’s address to a joint sitting of both houses on Friday, in solidarity with the farmers agitating against the three contentious farm laws.

The session is also likely to witness acrimonious scenes, with the opposition all set to corner the government on issues like recession, job losses, handling of Covid crisis, LAC stand-off with China and the WhatsApp chat leaks of Arnab Goswami.

Alleging that the farm laws have been pushed by the BJP government without a national consensus, the opposition parties announced their decision on Thursday to boycott the President's address, a move termed as “most unfortunate” by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi.

To seek the cooperation of various parties for the smooth functioning of the Budget session, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has convened a meeting of all political parties on Friday which is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The session will begin with the President’s address followed by the presentation of the Economic Survey.

The Union Budget will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman February

on

1. Both the houses will also debate on the Motion of thanks to the President’s address after the budget presentation.

The session will be held in two parts - January 29 to February 15 and March

8 to April 8 and will have a total of 33 sittings.

With the session starting barely days after the national capital witnessed unprecedented violence on Republic Day during the farmers tractor parade, the issue is expected to echo in Parliament.

It is after almost six months that the Parliament will be convened, as the Winter session could not be held due to the Covid pandemic.

With a view to have a paperless Budget, all the documents and the

Economic Survey would be made available online soon after the authenticated copies are laid on the Table of the House.

This session will be held as per Covid-19 protocols, with Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha meeting in shifts of five hours each - with the upper house meeting from 9 am to 2 pm and the lower house from 3 PM to 8 PM.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury said in Kolkata that intelligence failure on the part of the Delhi Police was to blame for the chaos and violence at Red Fort on January 26.

He also cast doubt on the Centre’s intention, stating that the Union government probably did not do much to avert violence as it “might have wanted to take advantage of the situation”.

Chowdhury said that the Delhi Police had given designated routes to the farmers to take out the tractor parade. “But the farmers took different routes and a section of them breached the Red Fort. Surely, it was due to intelligence failure on the part of Delhi Police and other agencies,” he said.

Accusing the BJP of branding any and every issue raised against the saffron party as “antinational, Pakistani or Khalistani”, Chowdhury, further said, “At times I feel that the central government deliberately allowed this (January 26 incident) to happen to take advantage of the situation.”