Govt ready to take Oppn head on in Parliament

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 25

The NDA government will continue reaching out to Opposition leaders to get critical legislations, including the GST Bill, cleared. However, it will not be on the defensive on “allegations of growing intolerance”—the issue that will be at the centre of the expected storm in Parliament this winter session. This was stated by top government functionaries after meetings of the BJP parliamentary party executive and NDA constituents.

Sources, in fact, indicated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might “also intervene”, if there was a debate on the alleged “intolerance” in the country.

BJP veterans Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who recently attacked the party leadership, attended the meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence where top leaders discussed strategy for the winter session that begins tomorrow. Advani and Joshi are members of the group that formulates the party strategy for navigating legislative business in both Houses during a parliamentary session.

According to Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, the government will continue with its dialogue with the Congress and address Opposition concerns on GST and other Bills such as the Real Estate Regulation Bill. “We are ready for a debate on intolerance. The government has nothing to feel shy about it,” Naidu said.

Regarding the “tolerance debate”, BJP leaders say the PM has already responded on the issue and there was no reason for the government to go defensive on the issue. The government will, therefore, argue along the lines that incidents such the Dadri lynching and Kalburgi killing—the basis of the raging debate on intolerance—are strictly in the domain of states and that the Centre and the saffron party had nothing to do with them.

“The Prime Minister had responded in the matter and there is no reason for the government to be defensive in this regard. If the Opposition wants to discuss these despite being state subjects, we will welcome it. The government is also willing to facilitate discussion on any matter of larger concern sought to be raised by the Opposition. However, we will not be intimidated,” they argue.