New House meets

THE BJP’s numbers in the Lok Sabha may have come down, but a buoyant Opposition’s expectations of any new rules of engagement have got an early reality check. The appointment of seven-time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab as the pro tem Speaker, overlooking the seniority of eight-time member K Suresh of the Congress, has already generated a tiff. In his remarks ahead of the start of the first Parliament session in his third term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed no hints of any concession despite the changed dynamics in the Lower House. June 25, he said, would mark five decades of the Emergency and ‘the new generation will not forget how the Constitution was scrapped by the Indira Gandhi government’. As he walked up to take oath as an MP, Opposition leaders held copies of the Constitution. Rahul Gandhi said it was done to show that the attack by PM Modi on the Constitution was not acceptable. The daggers are firmly drawn.

His government, the Prime Minister said, will work three times harder in its third term and deliver three-fold results. To the Opposition, his message was that people wanted substance and not slogans, debate and not drama or disturbance. Given its numerical strength, the INDIA bloc missing out on the opportunity to make its presence felt would be a huge disappointment. An effective and impactful line of questioning demands that the MPs are well prepared and a lot of research has gone into their pointed queries. Substance is the key.

Taking a jibe, the Prime Minister said he hoped the Opposition would live up to the people’s expectations. It’s a fair observation. The eyes of the nation are fixed as much on the Opposition as on the government. It’s a test for both sides.