Govt, Oppn spar over PM CARES

NEW DELHI: Questions raised by opposition parties on the alleged lack of transparency in the PM CARES Fund, and a comment by minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur about the alleged lapses in the paperwork of the PM National Relief Fund created by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1948, led to the first major disruption of Parliament’s pandemic-hit monsoon session, leading to at least four back-to-back adjournments on Friday.

Amid protests and heated exchanges between members from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla held meetings with both sides to come out with a compromise formula. “It is my responsibility to protect all the members, I would request Mr Anurag Thakur to say a few words on the objections raised by the other members, whatever I said was aimed to run the House effectively, if anyone’s sentiments got hurt, I personally apologise for it,” Birla said.

Following the direction, Thakur expressed regret over his remarks. “I had no intent to hurt the sentiments of anybody. If anyone is hurt, then I regret it,” Thakur said. Some other remarks made by the minister about the current Congress leadership were expunged, and are therefore not being included in this report.

During the introduction of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill in the Lower House quickly turned into a debate about the PM CARES Fund on Friday, as Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and former ministers Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari criticised the charitable trust while opposing the bill.

The bill seeks to provide the same tax treatment to the PM CARES Fund — created for emergencies and disasters such as Covid-19 — as is available to the Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

Adhir said when Nirmala Sitharaman started speaking, we heard her patiently. “We didn’t say anything unparliamentary. We didn’t even referred to the prime minister. How could he (Thakur) take these names?”

A DISCUSSION ON A TAXATION BILL IN THE LOWER HOUSE QUICKLY TURNED INTO A DEBATE ABOUT THE PM CARES FUND