Parliament logjam may end as govt concedes ground, rift opens in Oppn

There were signs of a conditional truce on Tuesday (December 2) between the Centre and the Opposition INDIA bloc for allowing Parliament to function for the remainder of the winter session. Floor leaders of all parties in the Lok Sabha met Speaker Om Birla on Monday, shortly after both Houses of Parliament were adjourned for a fifth consecutive sitting.

The meeting ended with the trade-off between the Treasury and the Opposition, which is now expected to allow the resumption of parliamentary proceedings. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters after the meeting that the Centre had agreed to the Opposition’s demand for a two-day discussion on the Constitution, slotted for December 13 and 14 in the Lok Sabha and December 16 and 17 in the Rajya Sabha. Rijiju also appealed “to all Opposition leaders to make good on the agreement that all of us will ensure Parliament functions smoothly”.

Opposition demand

It may be recalled that the Congress and its allies in the INDIA bloc had written to Birla soon after a special joint sitting of Parliament concluded on November 26, demanding that since this year marks the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, a discussion dedicated to the Constitution should be allowed.

The INDIA bloc’s demand was rooted in the hope that such a discussion would allow it to corner the Narendra Modi government afresh on the issue of the Centre’s alleged assaults on Constitutional principles, a theme that paid rich electoral dividends to the Opposition in the June Lok Sabha polls. The Centre, however, had remained non-committal on the demand so far.

Also read: How Constitution Day has reignited NDA-INDIA war over 'saving the Constitution'

Centre’s refusal continues at meeting

The past week of the winter session, which commenced on November 25, also saw the INDIA bloc demanding suspension of the listed business in both Houses of Parliament to discuss various issues, ranging from the indictment of businessman Gautam Adani by the US Department of Justice to the simmering communal tensions in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal.

Sources told The Federal that the Centre’s staunch refusal to concede separate discussions dedicated to the Adani indictment (sought by the Congress), the communal conflagration in Sambhal and undermining of the Places of Worship Act (demanded by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress), a host of matters concerning West Bengal as well as the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh pushed forward by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, and air pollution in Delhi (sought by AAP), continued at the meeting convened by Birla.

Unease of INDIA partners

The INDIA bloc, however, agreed to resume the normal House proceedings as its leaders were assured that they would be allowed to raise their issues during the discussion on the Constitution.

“The debate on the Constitution will be expansive and so the Opposition will get a chance to raise any issue it wants; it is almost like the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address which has a huge canvas... the Opposition has enough material to link the Adani indictment, the targeting of Muslims and their places of worship by BJP members in Sambhal and other parts of the country, issues of federalism, etc., with the broad theme of the Constitution and can use the discussion effectively to corner the government,” a senior INDIA bloc leader present at the meeting with Birla told The Federal.

Resuming normal functioning of Parliament, sources said, had also become a compulsion for the INDIA bloc as many of its constituents were uneasy over the way the Centre and the presiding officers of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were placing the blame for the continued logjam squarely on the Opposition.

Also read: Adani's indictment in US triggers political upheaval in Delhi

Cracks within INDIA bloc

Besides, senior INDIA bloc leaders told The Federal that “unlike previous Parliament session, the current session had seen cracks within the INDIA bloc” and that “different parties were pushing for discussions on different issues”.

The Trinamool Congress has been keeping away from the daily morning meetings of the INDIA bloc floor leaders convened by Rajya Sabha’s Leader of Opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge, to discuss a coordinated floor strategy.

TMC leaders The Federal spoke to said the party “didn’t want the Congress to dictate the agenda for the INDIA bloc”, especially after the Congress’s appalling poll performances in Haryana, Jammu, and Maharashtra and that Mamata Banerjee wanted her party MPs to “focus on issues directly connected with West Bengal instead of broad and vague national issues or the Adani matter that the Congress leadership was interested in”.

Congress obsession with Adani not working

Sources said several non-Congress INDIA bloc leaders also felt that the group needed to “corner the BJP on issues that directly affect the people” and that the Haryana and Maharashtra poll results had shown that the Congress’s “single-point agenda of attacking Modi on the Adani issue was neither helping the Congress nor the wider Opposition electorally”.

“Everyone knows that the Centre will never concede a discussion on Adani, so what is the point of stalling Parliament endlessly on this one issue... You can keep talking about it outside Parliament but inside Parliament there are so many other issues on which the BJP can be cornered; by disrupting, we are allowing the government to go scot-free while we get blamed for stalling Parliament. It is high time the Congress understood this; there is no dearth of issues on which we can put the government on the mat,” a non-Congress INDIA bloc MP said.

Also read: Priyanka's Parliament entry: How will it help Congress, Rahul?

Centre’s target to isolate Congress

The Centre, meanwhile, believes that by conceding a discussion on the Constitution, it can isolate the Congress further from the INDIA bloc by attacking the party yet again for its poor track record on preserving constitutional values and principles, which includes imposition of the Emergency, mass suspension of elected state governments, its initial resistance to reservation of backward castes and so on.

Sources said while the MPs of the BJP and its allies are expected to keep a bulk of their attacks concentrated on the Congress during the Constitution discussion, Modi, when he replies to the discussion in both Houses of Parliament, would also seek to exploit the chinks that have emerged in the INDIA bloc’s unity since the Congress’s recent assembly poll routs.

With the Congress’s position, both within the INDIA bloc and as the BJP’s principal rival, taking a massive hit post its decimation in Maharashtra and Haryana, it remains to be seen if the party can marshal the “Constitution debate” to its advantage. While Rahul Gandhi, in his capacity as Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, is set to be among the main speakers from the INDIA bloc, it would be interesting to see if he also fields his sister and newly elected Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi to give her maiden speech in Parliament during the discussion.