Adani, Manipur to rock Parl, govt calls for smooth session

Animesh Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 24

The winter session of Parliament, beginning tomorrow, is set for a rocky start with the Opposition, led by the Congress, today making it clear that it will raise the issues of bribery charges against billionaire Gautam Adani and the Manipur strife.

The government said it was ready to discuss any topic, provided there were no disruptions during the proceedings.

What may further raise the political heat is the listing of the controversial Waqf Amendment Bill among the legislations which are likely to be passed during the session.

While the Opposition has been seeking an extension of the deadline for the Joint Parliamentary Committee to submit a report on it, the BJP-led NDA government seems clear on the passage of the Bill with Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday asserting that the Waqf law had no place in the Constitution.

At an all-party meeting on Sunday, the Opposition said both the Adani bribe indictment and the Manipur violence would be raised in the coming session. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told mediapersons after the meeting that the government was ready to discuss all issues, provided there was no disruption of the proceedings.

To a question on the Opposition’s demand for taking up the Adani issue, Rijiju said the respective business advisory committees of the Houses would decide on matters to be discussed in Parliament with the consent of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairperson. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh presided over the all-party meeting along with Rijiju.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi said the party wanted discussion on Adani as well as the ethnic strife in Manipur.

He said while the Chief Minister of Jharkhand was arrested, the government still had confidence in the Chief Minister of Manipur despite bouts of ethnic violence.

Asked whether the opposition MPs would meet Speaker Om Birla on Monday to seek an extension of the deadline for the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Bill to submit its report on the controversial Bill (the report has to be submitted on November 29), Gogoi replied in the affirmative, saying that they had earlier also met him with the same request.

While the opposition MPs who are part of the joint committee have been seeking an extension of the deadline, saying that the Bill needs extensive discussions, the government has listed the Bill among the legislations which are to be introduced and passed during the winter session.

Yesterday, Modi, buoyed by the NDA’s win in Maharashtra, flayed the Congress for “betraying” the Constitution’s secular principals and cited the Waqf Act, which his government is seeking to amend, as an example of its “appeasement politics”.

The Congress had tried to inflict capital punishment on true secularism, he claimed, asserting that the Waqf law had no place in the Constitution.

Congress MPs Jairam Ramesh, Pramod Tiwari and K Suresh along with JD(U) MP Upendra Kushwaha and other leaders took part in the meeting. PV Midhun Reddy and V Vijaysai Reddy of the YSRCP, Sasmit Patra (BJD), Vaiko (MDMK), Ramgopal Yadav (SP), K Suresh (Congress) and Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu (TDP) were also present at the meeting.

Waqf Bill may raise heat too

What may further raise the political heat is the listing of the

controversial Waqf Amendment Bill among the legislations likely to be passed during the winter session, beginning Monday.