Last month, the Opposition adopted an aggressive approach in the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha, leading to continued disruptions even during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the Lok Sabha. This is likely to continue in the Budget Session beginning Monday with the Opposition looking to corner the government on various issues, from recurring railway accidents to NEET to militant attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. With the first session that began in June being a brief one, the coming session will be the real litmus test for the successful functioning of the new Lok Sabha. Opposition leaders have expressed their desire to “discuss and debate” but only “if the government is willing to let Opposition voices be heard in Parliament”. The customary all-party meeting before a Parliament session will be held on Sunday during which the Opposition will list the topics it wants to discuss in the session and also bring up the issue of the election of Deputy Speaker. Though the Budget, to be presented on Tuesday, will be the focus of the three-week-long session that is scheduled to conclude on August 12, sources said the Congress-led Opposition would prefer to use the floor of the House to discuss unemployment and rural distress too. The continuing crisis in Manipur, the issue that triggered vociferous protests in the first session, is also likely to have an echo in the coming Session, they added. Days after visiting the violence-hit state on July 8, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had said that the Congress and the INDIA alliance would raise the need for peace in Manipur “with full force in Parliament” to pressure the government. The Opposition may prefer to focus on education and railways — two areas on which they can put the government on the mat — during the department-related discussion on the Budget. The Business Advisory Committee (BAC), constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to decide Parliament’s agenda, will decide the sectors that will be addressed during the Budget discussions. The committee, chaired by the Speaker, also includes P P Chaudhary, Nishikant Dubey, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Anurag Thakur, Sanjay Jaiswal and Baijayant Panda (BJP); Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu (Telugu Desam Party); Dileshwar Kamait (Janata Dal-United); Gaurav Gogoi and Kodikunnil Suresh (Congress); Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Trinamool Congress); Dayanidhi Maran (DMK); Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT); and Lalji Verma (Samajwadi Party). Although the Opposition is armed with a range of issues over which to grill the government, the ruling party said it expects its rivals to allow Parliament to function smoothly. “Traditionally and generally, the Budget Session is only to discuss the Budget and it is not derailed. Budget is the most important thing and the country cannot run without it. So, I expect the Opposition to be constructive and pass the Budget without any chaos,” Nishikant Dubey told The Indian Express. Congress MP Manickam Tagore said, “We all expect the Opposition voices also to be heard. We just do not want to be disrupted by the ruling benches; we are ready to discuss people’s issues. We want the session to be more productive.” Some Congress MPs said Birla’s statement on Emergency immediately after his re-election in the previous session — a move seen as an attempt to single out the Congress and divide the Opposition — had already left a bad aftertaste. “In the first session also, we wanted to cooperate,” said Congress MP Hibi Eden. “We were ready to speak, the Leader of the Opposition spoke. But whenever the right of a member is curtailed, we would be forced to intervene. The Manipur member was not allowed to speak and that is when we went to the well of the House. We wanted a discussion on NEET. We are ready to cooperate… But unfortunately, the provocation was always from the Treasury benches. People who are part of the government shout slogans in the House. The remark on the Emergency, from the responsible higher authority, is something we cannot accept. It was unnecessary.” Eden added, “We have so many questions on development, about NEET, about Manipur and many issues related to people and also our constituencies. We want the Treasury benches to cooperate. Now that the Opposition is in good strength, it has a voice and that should be heard.” Opposition sources said there would be attempts to “give anxious moments” to the ruling alliance. The Opposition had sought a discussion on the NEET fiasco in the first session too but the request was not allowed. It also wanted the MPs from Manipur to be allowed to speak during the debate on the Motion of Thanks and had disrupted the PM’s reply to the debate as it was disallowed. “There could be demands for division on the budgetary provisions. Parties like the YSR Congress Party (which has four MPs) could take a stand on issues linked to funds for Andhra Pradesh,” said an MP. With the BJP not having the numbers in the Rajya Sabha and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), once a friendly party that bailed out the government on several contentious issues in the last 10 years, saying it will stop lending “issue-based support”, the Opposition INDIA bloc will maintain an edge in the Upper House. Besides the Finance Bill, the government has also listed six Bills for this session, including the Bhartiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, to replace the Aircraft Act, 1934, to improve “ease of doing business” in the civil aviation sector.
