Budget Session may be cut short, meetings by Speaker Birla, V-P Dhankhar fail to end deadlock

Some MPs said the government may guillotine the demands for grants and pass the Finance Bill without any discussion in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

At the meetings held by Speaker Om Birla for the Lok Sabha and Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for the Upper House, the BJP maintained that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi could be allowed to put forward his point of view regarding his remarks on Indian democracy in London only if he was ready to apologise over the same. But the Congress rejected this completely, while insisting on its demand that the government constitute a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe the Adani issue.

Sources in the BJP said the Budget Session cannot continue “with no business and complete logjam”. But the government has to find a way to complete the passage of the Budget, which includes the passing of the Finance Bill.

With Parliament closed Wednesday due to festivals like Gudi Padwa and Ugadi, that leaves two days for the government in case it decides to curtail the Session.

According to sources, at the meeting called by him to resolve the issue, Birla urged MPs to find a solution to the stalemate and said he wants to run the House. The government then offered that Rahul could speak in the House provided he assures that he would tender an apology for his “anti-India remarks”. Congress leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury ruled this out categorically, and reiterated the Opposition demand for a JPC probe into the Adani issue.

Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankar held two meetings with floor leaders of parties to break the logjam. While the first meeting was attended by BJP, YSRCP, BJD and TDP leaders, at the later meeting, leaders of the NCP, BRS, DMK, TMC, BJD, Tamil Maanila Congress and AGP were present, besides representatives of the BJP. Dhankar told the MPs that the House was meant for debate and discussion in a collaborative manner and not for confrontation and deadlock.

Leaders of the Congress and DMK met Dhankhar before the first meeting to express their inability to attend it. According to an official note, the Chairman indicated that this would not help the cause of democracy.

The Treasury benches accused the Opposition of willfully stalling Parliament. Union Minister and Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal, joined by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, said the Opposition with its “irresponsible” comments and “unfounded” allegations was misleading the country amid “global recognition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership”.

The ministers also accused the Opposition of not being ready to even attend meetings called by presiding officers to find a solution to the stalemate. The Opposition denied this.

In the morning on Tuesday, the BJP reportedly took a call to not disrupt Question Hour if the Opposition remained in its seats and asked for a discussion. “We were told not to get up or raise slogans if the Opposition does not come to the Well of the House,” a senior BJP MP said.

However, as soon as the Lok Sabha met, Congress and DMK MPs rushed to the Well, demanding a JPC probe into the Adani Group row.

Congress and 16 Opposition parties, including the Aam Aadmi Party but excluding the Trinamool Congress, also went up to the first floor of Parliament House, and unfurled a banner from the corridors calling for a JPC probe – in a unique protest – while carrying placards and shouting slogans.

The BJP, meanwhile, intensified its attack on Rahul outside Parliament, with party spokesperson Sambit Patra terming the Congress leader “the present-day Mir Jafar of Indian polity”. He insulted the country and asked a foreign power to intervene in the country, Patra said at a press conference. “What he has done in London is the same thing that Mir Jafar did… Shehzada wants to become a nawab. Shehzada has sought help from the East India Company to become a nawab.”

The BJP MP quoted above said he saw little sign of a breakthrough, including from the party’s side. “We cannot now go back on our demand for an apology from Rahul,” the MP said.

During his recent interactions in the UK, Rahul spoke about democracy being under threat in India, going on to say: “First of all, this is our problem. It is an internal problem. It is an Indian problem and the solution is going to come from inside. It is not going to come from outside. However, the scale of Indian democracy means that democracy in India is a global public good… If Indian democracy collapses, in my view, democracy on the planet suffers a very serious, possibly fatal blow… We will deal with our problem but you must be aware that this problem is going to play out on a global scale.”