NEW DELHI: Buoyed by its success in passing the TRAI amendment bill in Lok Sabha, government today expressed confidence of getting it through in Rajya Sabha also while Congress was cautious about its next course with some of its allies deserting it on the issue in the lower House.
"We are confident that the bill will get through in the Rajya Sabha even as NDA does not have a majority there," Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.
He also slammed Congress for its opposition to the law and reminded that UPA government had promulgated 61 ordinances.
The bill to remove legal hurdles in the appointment of former TRAI chief Nripendra Misra as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi was passed in Lok Sabha today, with Congress, RJD, CPI-M, AAP and RSP opposing it and Trinamool Congress making a volte-face on the issue. Congress ally NCP did not join the walkout.
Apparently in the backdrop of TMC's change of stand, Congress responded cautiously to questions on the issue but Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed had a dig at Trinamool Congress without naming it wondering "if somebody takes a U turn, is it the fault of Congress?.
TMC leader Sudip Bandopadhyay, whose party had opposed the bill last week, supported the measure saying the Prime Minister had "the right to appoint any officer who he feels fit...in the greater interests of better governance."
His party colleague, Saugata Roy, had last week opposed the bill saying it was being brought "merely to give a government job to a superannuated TRAI Chairman, thereby taking away the independence of TRAI."
Ahmed, however, downplayed the issue of NCP not backing it on the issue saying "it is for them to decide and they have decided in their own wisdom. They are separate entities...some parties thought that the protest was against one individual.
"Congress has made it clear that it is not opposing any individual but the way the Ordinance was brought," Ahmed said.
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