NEW DELHI:
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is unperturbed about threats of disruptions and logjams by the opposition during the upcoming monsoon session of parliament.
The opposition led by the erstwhile ruling Congress party has been threatening to disrupt proceedings in parliament if their demand for resignations of foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje is not accepted by the Narendra Modi government. Both Swaraj and Raje are currently embroiled in a visa and immigration row involving former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi.
The three-week long monsoon session is scheduled to start from July 21 with the government having a long list of legislations it wants passed, including the contentious Land Acquisition Bill and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.
The think-tank in the BJP is unfazed about the likelihood of the opposition taking them to task over the controversies. They are pinning their hopes on two expected scenarios.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is an integral part of BJP’s think-tank Thursday brushed aside any such threat with a smile.
“The bills are very crucial for development and I hope no political party takes anti-growth and anti-development position ... There is a lot of importance of these bills to the country’s economy. The government is hopeful that no political party will adopt a negative approach on the issue of nation’s development,” Jaitley said.
Both Modi government and BJP have been hard-selling the Land Acquisition Bill which was dubbed by the Congress party as anti-farmer and anti-poor. The BJP has been telling people directly through various channels that acquiring land is important for creating infrastructure in rural areas which will bring development and economic growth.
The BJP has enlisted support of several regional parties and is confident that with their help, despite being in the minority, it would manage to get the amended bill passed before the monsoon session ends in mid-August.
Those coming in the way of passage of the Land Acquisition and GST Bills would be seen as anti-development, BJP feels. GST in particular is crucial as it would end different tax regimes being practised in different states and bring uniform pan-India tax system on goods and services as is the case in several developed countries. BJP is hopeful passage of GST Bill would bring down prices in many states and give much-needed relief to consumers.
Besides, the BJP is also confident that the Congress party would not be able to sustain its campaign against Swaraj and Raje for long since the party does not have any evidence to nail them after the two leaders explained their positions in public. Swaraj said she recommended travel papers for Lalit Modi on humanitarian grounds to the British authorities, while Raje said she had a change of mind and the document she signed recommending Modi’s immigration to a British court was never presented.
Both Swaraj and Raje claim they are family friends with the controversial industrialist turned former cricket administrator Lalit Modi.
Besides Marxists, none of the other regional and smaller parties have expressed support to the Congress party in demanding the ouster of Swaraj and Raje which thus weakening the Congress stand.
