BJP will not disrupt the budget session

New Delhi: The budget session of parliament beginning on Monday could be a more businesslike affair this time with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) indicating it would not disrupt the proceedings with walkouts.

However, the business-packed two-and-a-half-month-long session would witness the usual heated debates with both the BJP and the government's Communist allies attacking it on various issues.

BJP MP Santosh Gangwar said that while the party would put the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the mat on the issue of rising prices, the worsening agrarian crisis and the intensifying Maoist attacks in different states, he indicated the party would desist from creating frequent ruckus and staging walkouts as it had done during the last budget, monsoon and winter sessions.

The session, which will have 35 sittings, will begin with President Pratibha Patil addressing both houses of parliament today.

"This is the fourth year of the UPA [United Progressive Alliance] Government. However, there is no respite for the common man, who is suffering due to the spiralling price rise. We will definitely raise the issue in parliament," Gangwar said.

"Nothing is being done by this government over farmers' suicides. More than 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last 15 years," he said.

The BJP's demand for early elections in Karnataka and the party raising the issue of increasing threats to internal security could add to the likely turbulence during the session.

The BJP would also protest the "government's move to delay the assembly elections in Karnataka" and raise the issue of the controversial Sethusamudram canal project.

"The BJP wants elections [in Karnataka] by the end of May and we will press for the demand in both the houses," BJP spokesperson Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

The opposition has given 75 notices for discussions under rules 184 and 193 in the Lok Sabha alone.

Ram Setu issue

The Rs240 billion-Sethusamudram canal project off the Tamil Nadu coast had seen the BJP disrupting proceedings for days during the last monsoon and winter session.

The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena say the canal project would destroy the bridge-like formation known as Ram Setu mentioned in the epic Ramayana.

However, UPA's ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will be pressurising the government to go ahead with it. The DMK claims the canal project would dramatically improve the economic condition of the state.

The government is expected to submit a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court on the Ram Setu by the first week of March.

The BJP's recent demand to bring in the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill is also likely to put the government in a dilemma as many in the UPA are yet to agree with the legislation to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in parliament and legislative assemblies.

The session will go for recess March 21-April 14 and continue till May 9. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad will present the Railway Budget for 2008-09 on Tuesday. Three days later, on February 29, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will present the General Budget. The Economic Survey will be presented on February 28.