Parliament gets ready for a chilly fortnight

Some bills, awaited results from Guj and Himachal Pradesh and a lot of heat from an acerbic poll campaign set to rule 14 days of House meeting coming after a postponement

NEW DELHI : Parliament’s winter session, which starts on Friday under the shadows of the Gujarat elections, is expected to be stormy with the opposition gearing up to attack the central government on key economic and corruption issues.

Sources in both camps indicated that the impact of the Gujarat results is likely to be felt in the House.

“Even if the Congress is unable to get a majority in the Gujarat assembly but manages to increase its tally, we will see a more aggressive face of the principal opposition party,” a senior party strategist said.

The winter session is being held after the government earlier decided to postpone the date in the wake of the Gujarat elections, a move it was highly criticised for by the opposition parties who accused the government of trying to curtail the length of the winter session.

In the backdrop of several adjournments and disruptions in the Lower House while stalling of bills in the Upper House, Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, who spoke about adopting tough measures against disruptions three days ago, on Thursday told Rajya Sabha TV that the opposition must have ways to express its views.

“My appeal to the government is to allow the opposition to express its point of view.”

Naidu, who will run his first full session as the chairman, also added that if the government and the opposition can’t agree on debates and smooth proceedings, he will “decide how to run the House.”

In the monsoon session, the Lok Sabha functioned for only 67% of its allotted time while the Upper House could utilise only 72% of the allotted time.

Naidu reminded the parliamentarians that the House has to effectively highlight the “will, aspirations and hope of the people” but also added that the lawmakers

should respect the mandate. “At the end of it, you can either talk (it) out or walk out,” he said, in an apparent signal to the opposition parties.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has also called for an all-party meeting to appeal to all MPs for a smooth functioning of the House.

The first day of Lok Sabha, however, will be adjourned after paying tributes to three sitting parliamentarians – BJP’s Alwar MP Chand Nath, Trinamool Congress’ Entally MP Sultan Ahmed and Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Araria MP Mohammed Taslimuddin – who recently passed away.