Given the current level of acrimony generated by the confidence vote between the UPA and the Opposition, the Government is unlikely to go in for the Monsoon Session of Parliament as per its original plan from August 11.A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, which met with Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee in the chair, deferred a decision on the issue. The committee is likely to meet again next month.The Lok Sabha, convened for a special two-day session on July 21 and 22, has not been prorogued yet. This implies that the Government need not approach the President afresh to enable the House to meet again. It can straightaway make a request to the Speaker to this effect.The Speaker is scheduled to leave for Malaysia for a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference at Kuala Lumpur on August 1 and return on August 10. The session was initially planned keeping in view the Speaker’s tour plan.In the meanwhile, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj ruled out any co-operation with the Government in legislative matters. “It is an illegitimate Government,” she said. Swaraj said the NDA would want the Government to test its majority whenever it moves a Bill. However, she said the BJP would support the Government on the Women’s Reservation Bill.
