Basking in their victory in the first half of the Budget session today, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley indicated that the government would have to consult the Opposition much more if it wanted further legislative business in Parliament.
Swaraj listed out the failures of the government. “The government wanted a discussion on price rise as part of the Motion of Thanks to President’s Address, or the debate on the General Budget. We wanted a focussed discussion on the issue,” she said, adding that the Lok Sabha was adjourned on two days because of the Opposition’s protest. She insisted that the BJP had acted responsibly by not forcing an adjournment in the Lok Sabha on price rise when the Railway Budget was being presented.
She made a special mention of the Opposition’s unprecedented walkout during the presentation of the Budget in protest against inflationary policies announced by the government. “BJP will bring cut-motion against the Budget,” she said.
The two BJP leaders attributed good floor-coordination as the reason for the Opposition’s good performance. “The floor management of the government was poor,” she added.
The BJP also took credit for deferring the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, saying the government was forced to retreat in the face of Opposition unity. “We are opposing the Bill as it is not in the nation’s interest.”
Swaraj claimed credit for the BJP’s role in the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha, too. “When the Women’s Reservation Bill came up, many said the Opposition unity will be broken. We were not affected by the criticism that the BJP was aligning with the Left,” she said.
When she was reminded that the Congress had already taken credit for the passage of the Women’s Bill in the Rajya Sabha, she said: “Democracy runs on numbers. In the House where it was passed, the government did not have a majority.”
Jaitley referred to the din and use of marshals when the contentious Bill came up for discussion. “My de facto intervention became the de jure debate,” he claimed, adding that he had objected to the use of marshals even in his speech. “You cannot have voting or debate in the presence of marshals,” he said.
“From the beginning till the end we were opposed to the use of marshals. Even during the debate, while supporting the Bill, we opposed it. The government could have handled it better,” Jaitley added.
BJP sources warned that if the government did not consult the Opposition, it would face a similar fate on the proposed Bill on higher education that the Cabinet had cleared. “The era of reforms – economic or social – through legislation is over,” the sources said.
