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Parliament Session : Contentious issues to come up |
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Away from the electoral winds of Bihar and Jharkhand, the Manmohan Singh Government in New Delhi is all set to present its second Union Budget during the Parliament session opening on February 25.
The session beginning with President’s Address to both Houses, is likely to prove a rocky affair as the opposition BJP is expected to raise the dismissal of the Manohar Parrikar Government in Goa in Parliament. The Left parties which have often articulated their opposition to the UPA Government’s economic policies, may utilise the occasion to demand the scrapping of the notification paving the wave for raising the FDI cap in private banks to 74 per cent.
On the eve of the Budget session, the Congress has asserted that the party is firmly committed to implementing the assurances given in the Common Minimum Programme. The party says that it will follow the coalition dharma (norms) by consulting its allies and supporting parties on policy matters. Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said that there is no threat to the UPA Government from the Left parties. He said differences among political parties are natural in a democracy since each party had different policies. He said the coordination committee mechanism is essentially to sort out differences.
Anand Sharma said the Left parties have never talked about pulling down the Government. He said the Congress has not seen any reason to doubt the Left’s commitment to strengthen the Government and fight the communal forces.
On its part, CPIM leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu said that they have been forced to extend support to the Congress-led UPA Government to save the country from what he called “the barbaric and uncivilized” rule of the BJP. Speaking in Agartala, he said as the Communists were not in a position to capture power, they had no other option, but to support the Congress to keep communal forces at bay.
Meanwhile, the Centre has decided to set up one more Commission to take a new look at Centre-State relations. Home Minister Shivraj Patil said in New Delhi on February 16 that the new Commission will be set up keeping in view the sea-changes that have taken place in the polity and the country’s economy since the Sarkaria Commission looked at the issue over two decades back.
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