November 21, 2024

The second phase of the monsoon session of Parliament begins today. Both the government and the opposition have a huge responsibility to ensure that it is not washed out in unnecessary fighting over inconsequential and frivolous issues. There are urgent matters that require the attention of our lawmakers.

The Congress will now be confident in both the houses because it has won three major victories outside parliament. First, it convinced Supreme Court that the Centre had dismissed its government in Arunachal Pradesh in an unconstitutional manner and got the court to pass several adverse remarks about the handling of the issue by both the Governor and the Centre. Then, it scored a major court victory in the national Herald case when the court decided not to make some documents available to petitioner Subramaniam Swamy. Finally, in a swift move, the party changed the CLP leadership in Arunachal to outfox the BJP and get a breather for its government there. The Congress is hence brimming with confidence and should be in a better mood to listen to the government in matters of public importance.

As for the BJP, its confidence after the victory in Assam and good showing elsewhere got dented for the above three reasons. Hence, it has tried to reach out to the opposition. Finance minister Arun Jaitley held meetings with the Congress and other opposition parties to narrow down the differences over the GST bill. This legislation needs to be passed in the current session to bring about a huge reform and make India one marketplace with easy and transparent indirect tax laws.

There are other important legislations that need to be passed. Hence, it will be good if the opposition takes cognizance of the lessening of arrogance on part of the NDA government and works with it to ensure smooth functioning of both the houses of parliament.