‘Intolerance’ to dominate Parliament's Winter Session

New Delhi: Trouble-shooters of the Narendra Modi government on Tuesday went into a huddle in anticipation of a stormy start to the Winter Session of Parliament from Thursday.

Even while the Prime Minister has reiterated that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be rolled out from April 2016, his ministers are apparently keeping their fingers crossed with the Congress likely to further escalate confrontation with the ruling NDA in both the Houses of Parliament.

Ministers of home, finance, external affairs, defence and parliamentary affairs Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Manohar Parrikar and M. Venkaiah Naidu respectively went into a huddle to finetune the strategy of the ruling coalition ahead of the crucial session of Parliament.

“The government’s agenda is to run the two Houses smoothly and get the bills passed by reaching out to the Opposition. Senior ministers have spoken to leaders of various Opposition parties, seeking their cooperation,” said Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

He added, “We are hopeful to get Congress support for the passage of important reform bills which are in the national interest.” Incidentally, a total of 38 bills, including some finance bills, are awaiting parliamentary approval. The Constitution Amendment GST bill is also pending in Parliament which the government hopes to pass in the upcoming session.

The government has called an all-party meeting on Wednesday. Also, the BJP parliamentary party executive and NDA constituents will meet later at the Prime Minister’s residence. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has also separately called an all-party meeting.

However, the Congress has dropped enough hints that incidents like the Dadri lynching, Kalburgi killing, among others, would be raised in both the Houses of Parliament. These incidents also cropped up during the high-level ministerial meeting while discussing the ongoing campaign of “rising intolerance” in the country.

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