Monsoon session likely to be stormy

The monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to begin on Monday is expected to witness heated debates, as a united Opposition is all set to confront the government on the issue of the Kashmir situation, the border standoff with China, agrarian distress, farmers' agitation, unemployment, economic slowdown, demonetisation woes, and a "flawed" GST.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday held an informal meeting of the Opposition leaders to firm up the issues to be raised during the session. The two Houses will be adjourning on the opening day because of the death of the sitting members since last session.

The Congress is also contemplating to unite all Opposition parties to raise the GST issue in both the Houses of Parliament to pressurise the government to immediately sit with representatives of industries and businesses and remove their grievances instead of mounting a media campaign to justify the new tax regime.

Even as three top Union Ministers – Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj – on Friday briefed the Opposition, including the Congress, on the standoff with China and situation in Kashmir post-Amarnath pilgrims attack, the Opposition is in no mood to let the government to off the hook. "We will raise these issues as nation wants answers from the government," said leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad. The party is discussing with other Opposition parties to table an adjournment motion to discuss these issues.

Congress strategists say the government has still to answer why its ties with the neighbours have slumped when the Prime Minister was so focused on foreign policy. On Kashmir, the Opposition feels the government has mishandled both the internal situation and the engagement with Pakistan.

But the Opposition's main concerns are the farm crisis and the jobless growth."These are the government's biggest failures, apart from the vitiated social ambience as communal rhetoric and violence grow unabated," Congress senior leader Anand Sharma said.

Although the Opposition received a jolt with Nitish Kumar supporting the BJP's Presidential candidate, many leaders believed that this session will be a test for their unity. So far 18 parties have come together under one platform to pin the government on some key issues. The outcome of the tensions in Bihar between the RJD and the JD-U can also have a major impact on future Opposition politics, they added. Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja said the Opposition "will seek answers from the government on what they are doing to check rising incidents of cow vigilantism and lynchings in the country that pose grave danger to the social harmony".

The government, on its part, is seeking the cooperation of Opposition in getting key bills passed. "If they demand discussion on some current issues, we will discuss the same in the business advisory committee and the chairman will decide the time and date of discussion," Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

Prime Minister Modi on Sunday, without naming Trinamool Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal, hit out at the corruption plaguing the nation. He said the political class should join hands against those who seek an escape route by dubbing action against them in graft cases as a political conspiracy. "When law takes its course against those who loot the nation, we have to unite against those who seek an escape route by dubbing such an action as a political conspiracy," the PM tweeted.