All-Party Meeting Ahead of Budget Session; Suspended Opposition MPs to Return
NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday held an all-party meeting ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament beginning on January 31 and ending on February 9. During the meeting, the government told floor leaders of various parties that it was ready to discuss every issue in the last session of the present Lok Sabha.
Also, the 14 Opposition MPs suspended during the last Parliament session will return to attend the Budget Session. Their cases were referred to privilege committees, and the MPs be back after the Chairs in the two Houses agreed to the government's request to this effect.
A total of 146 Opposition MPs — 100 from the Lok Sabha and the rest from the Rajya Sabha — were suspended for bringing placards into the chambers and disrupting proceedings. The suspension of 132 MPs was lifted when the session concluded. The transgressions by the 14 MPs — 11 from the Rajya Sabha and three from the Lok Sabha — were considered more serious and were handed over to the privileges committees of both Houses.
The session will begin with President Droupadi Murmu's address to a joint sitting of both the Houses and the interim Budget will be presented on February 1.
Describing the interaction during the all-party meeting as "very cordial," parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said the government is ready to discuss every issue during the brief session.
"Everybody's suspension will be withdrawn. We have requested the Speaker and the Chairperson on behalf of the government and they have agreed," the parliamentary affairs minister said after the all-party meeting.
He, however, asserted that leaders of different parties who attended the meeting were told that they should follow the decision that MPs should not bring any placards or similar materials inside chambers during the session or else the Chairs will be forced to take action.
From the government side, Union ministers, including defence minister and deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Rajnath Singh, Joshi and his deputy Arjun Ram Meghwal were present. Congress' K. Suresh, TMC's Sudip Bandopadhyay, DMK's T.R. Baalu, Shiv Sena's Rahul Shewale, Samajwadi Party's S.T. Hasan, JD(U)'s Ram Nath Thakur and TDP's Jayadev Galla were among the leaders present at the meeting at the Parliament House complex.
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, who represented the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, said he raised the issue of the "violent attack" on the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi in Assam and the state government's curbs on it. The Congress leader alleged that an "unwritten dictatorship" prevails in the country and accused the Central government of misusing probe agencies such as the CBI and the ED to target Opposition leaders such as Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.