Parliament’s budget session starting Monday is likely to be a tumultuous one as opposition parties prepare to raise allegations of Pegasus espionage, farmers’ issues and the border dispute with China. The session is taking place in the midst of crucial assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is locked in a bitter electoral battle with its rivals, and with campaigning in full swing, it will have an impact on Parliament proceedings. ,
After The New York Times claimed that India had bought spyware as part of a defense deal with Israel in 2017, the opposition is preparing to unite to counter the government over the Pegasus snooping controversy. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has already done it. Wrote Speaker Om Birla to move a privilege motion against the government and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnav for “misleading” the House, as the government denied allegations of “espionage” in a statement in Parliament last year.
The last monsoon session was ruined by the Pegasus controversy, when a joint opposition refused to allow both the houses to function and demanded a discussion on the matter. Sources said the government is unlikely to agree to a discussion on the issue and will focus on clearing its legislative business.
Major opposition Congress has said it will reach out to like-minded parties to raise issues such as agrarian distress, Chinese “infiltration”, demand for relief package for COVID-19 victims, sale of Air India and Pegasus snooping row. the session. Opposition parties will try to take the pitch on farmers’ issues, which have been making headlines in the assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, two states that staged major protests against the repealed Entre agricultural laws during the last session.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu are scheduled to chair separate meetings with floor leaders of political parties to ensure smooth functioning of the House during the session on Monday. The session will begin with President Ram Nath Kovind addressing a joint sitting of both the Houses in the Central Hall and Chambers of both the Houses in view of the COVID-19 situation.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Economic Survey 2021-22 on Monday and the Union Budget on Tuesday. The budget session is being held in the shadow of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will return at different times with members sitting in the chambers of both the houses to ensure social distancing norms.
While the Upper House will hold a meeting from 10 am to 3 pm, the Lower House will hold a meeting from 4 pm to 9 pm. The Lok Sabha will discuss the motion of thanks to the President’s address from Wednesday and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to respond to the debate on February 7.
Officials of the Lok Sabha Secretariat said four days, starting from February 2, have been provisionally allotted for discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address. The first part of the budget session will run from January 31 to February 11, after which it will go into recess to check the budgetary allocation for various departments.
The session will resume on March 14 and end on April 8. The first part of the session will have 10 sittings while the second part will have 19 sittings. Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla took stock of the arrangements for the budget session this evening. The two met at the Vice President’s residence and the two presiding officers discussed various issues for about 40 minutes.
The session provides only seventy-nine hours for the legislative agenda of the government and for raising issues of urgent public concern in the scheduled 29 sittings of both the Houses. A total of 135 hours of sitting time is available for the Rajya Sabha during the scheduled 27 sittings with 5 hours per day during February 2 to April 8, 2022.
Out of this, the first part of the 40-hour session accounts for about 30 per cent of the total scheduled sitting time while the second part is about 70 per cent with 95 hours. The Zero Hour will be half to 30 minutes per day with a total of 13 hours and 30 minutes for raising issues of public importance besides laying papers and reports during 27 sittings in Rajya Sabha.
The question hour will be of 27 hours. A total of 15 hours is allotted for the work of non-official members in six days. During the first week of the second part of the session, Private Members’ Bills will be taken up on Thursday as Friday is a holiday.
It has left only 79 hours and 30 minutes to discuss the issues of urgent public concern under calling attention notice and to consider and pass the bills proposed by the government as short-term discussions. The budget session to begin tomorrow is the sixth since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020.
The 2020 budget session was shortened by eight sittings and the 2021 budget session by 10 sittings.
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