NEW DELHI: The Opposition is preparing to counter the NDA government over the mega Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and other issues during the second half of Parliament’s Budget session that starts Monday. The BJP is expected to flex muscles as the session comes just days after the party’s wins in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya polls.
The most important Bill for the BJP in the second-half of the Budget session is the Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bills to keep the government going. “The Budget was a bad product with great advertising. It was full of platitudes, grand announcements, most of which are unimplementable and also boastful and hollow claims.
The key issues of agrarian distress, job creation and education have not been addressed seriously or sincerely,” said Anand Sharma, Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress, which has been repeatedly attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the PNB fraud case over the past few weeks, has given an adjournment motion notice in the Rajya Sabha to flag the issue. “There are several cases. There is not only one bank.
People are fleeing after looting multiple banks. We will discuss what essential issues are to be raised in Parliament tomorrow,” Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha said. Besides the PNB fraud case, the Congress has also been attacking the PM over the Rafale jet deal. Thye issue is expected to generate heated exchanges as Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has de n i e d a n y wrongdoing.
The CPI-M, which is yet to digest its defeat in Tripura, too is expected to use the Parliament session to corner the BJP, which is eyeing another Left bastion Kerala. Ditto for Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, which too is miffed over the BJP’s designs of capturing power in West Bengal. The BJD, which has been a fence sitter of sorts over the past Parliament sessions but has been concerned over the inroads being made by the saffron party in Odisha, is also likely to close ranks with the other Opposition parties in taking on the BJP.
The BJD plans to raise issues like Mahanadi, Polavaram, MSP hike, changing the members of standing committees, demand to bring Odisha under one railway zone and deployment of more Central forces, said party lawmaker Kalikesh Singh Deo. Uttar Pradesh-based SP and the BSP, who were decimated by the BJP in 2017 Assembly polls, have dropped their rivalry for now to defeat the saffron party in the two Lok Sabha bypolls, and may find good reason in continuing their partnership during the Budget session, which ends on April 6.