New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has called for all party meet on Sunday to discuss ways for smooth functioning of Parliament in the second phase of Budget session beginning on Monday.
The Parliamentary session beginning tomorrow is expected to be a stormy affair. Ishrat Jahan encounter case, drought, Uttarakhand political crisis are the few issues which are sure to rock the Parliament.
The possibility of the two camps reconciling are remote as the confrontation is at the very top level, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) determined to take on Congress president Sonia Gandhi for "influencing changes" in the Ishrat Jahan affidavit, while the Congress too finds fault with no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
Congress is bracing to attack the government and rope in other opposition parties on the Uttarakhand issue. Congress's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma has given a notice to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari under Rule 267 for taking up the resolution after suspending all business.
The resolution seeks to "deplore" the "destabilisation" of the democratically elected government in Uttarakhand and "disapprove" the "unjustified" imposition of President's Rule there under Article 356 of the Constitution.
The Modi government is expected to convince the Opposition to ensure passage of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.
The GST Bill, which seeks to replace a slew of central and state levies with a uniform rate, was passed by Lok Sabha in May and is pending ratification by Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA does not have a majority.
Besides eyeing the passage of long-pending Goods and Service Tax Bill, the fate of the National Waterways Transportation Bill, Consumer Protection Bill and the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that seek to improve ease of doing business also hang in the balance. The parliamentary panel's report on the vexed land acquisition bill is also awaited.
