Budget, outcry over NEET, special status for states to dominate monsoon session

The Monsoon session of the Parliament will get underway on Monday (July 22) and will be marked by the presentation of the Union Budget by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the first after the NDA-government has taken over after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The session, which will have 19 sittings till August 12, will also witness the united Opposition trying to corner the NDA-government on issues ranging from the NEET paper leak case and railway safety. Notably, the JD(U) and RJD, YSRCP and BJD will also simultaneously raise their demand for special category status for Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha respectively.

It will also be business as usual at the Parliament, as the government will also present six bills, including the one to replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act, and also get the nod for the budget of Jammu and Kashmir, which is under central rule.

Another highlight will be the tabling of the Economic Survey by Sitharaman in Parliament on Monday.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju convened a meeting of the floor leaders of political parties in Parliament to understand issues they would want to raise during the session. The meeting was attended by political leaders across party lines except for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, who had skipped it as they were away from the national capital in West Bengal for a mega Martyrs’ Day rally.

Presentation of Union Budget

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to create history when she presents her seventh straight Budget on Tuesday for the fiscal 2024-25, surpassing the record of former prime minister Morarji Desai.

Sitharaman, who will turn 65 next month, was in 2019 appointed as India's first full-time woman finance minister when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive second term. Since then, she has presented six straight budgets, including an interim one in February this year.

The full Budget for the 2024-25 fiscal (April 2024 to March 2025) will be her seventh straight. She will better Desai's record, who presented consecutive five full budgets and one interim budget between 1959 to 1964.

This year will witness two budgets - an interim one in February and a full one this month. This is because an incumbent government cannot present a full Budget just before general elections.

Sitharaman also holds the record for the longest budget speech when her presentation on February 1, 2020, lasted two hours and 40 minutes. At the time, she cut short her speech with two pages still remaining.

States demand special category status

Besides the Congress who will raise the issue of the cancellation of NEET, the alleged misuse of CBI and ED, this session promises to be stormy with the BJD, led by former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, declaring that it would play the role of a strong opposition and aggressively raise issues of interest to the state in Parliament.

Patnaik, who was elected as the chairperson of BJD parliamentary party, has asked his party MPs to take up the demand for special category status for Odisha. While the leaders of the JD(U), RJD, YSRCP too want the Centre to give special category status for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

JD(U) is demanding special category status for Bihar saying that they have been raising this issue for a very long time. And, they have said that if there is any technical problem involved in doing so, they asked for a special package.

Meanwhile, YSRCP leader Vijay Sai Reddy told reporters, “The special category status for Andhra Pradesh is the only solution for the development of the State, which TDP, the ruling party, is completely silent on.”

He added, “The TDP is not raising the issue of special category status. They have reached a compromise with the BJP. Jagan Mohan Reddy, former CM will hold a dharna in Delhi on Wednesday on the alarming law and order situation in the state.”

Bills to be passed

Earlier this week, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had said that the Opposition would also resist any government move to dilute its stake in public sector banks below 51 per cent.

The government is likely to bring amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and other laws such as Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970, and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980 in the Budget Session due to which the government's shareholding in PSBs can go down below 51 per cent.

Besides the Finance Bill, the government has also listed The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill for introduction, consideration and passing.

The proposed legislation aims to bring more clarity and convergence in the roles of different organisations working in the field of disaster management, a Lok Sabha bulletin issued on July 18 said.

The Bhartiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024 seeks to replace the Aircraft Act of 1934 to provide enabling provisions for ease of doing business in the civil aviation sector.

The other bills listed for introduction and passage during the session are the Boilers Bill to replace the pre-Independence era law, the Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill and the Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill.

Other demands

CPI-M MP John Brittas told reporters there's a need for addressing public concerns, including the situation in Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, “communal polarisation” in Uttar Pradesh, exam frauds, and unemployment.

“Parliament should function properly and there should be debate and discussion, which has not happened for the past 10 years. We want the government to understand the ground reality. The unemployment rate is at its peak, and people are starving. There has been an assault on the power of the states,” Brittas stated.

Business Advisory Committee

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has also constituted the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), which decides the parliamentary agenda.

The committee chaired by the Speaker has Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC), P P Chaudhary (BJP), Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu (TDP), Nishikant Dubey (BJP), Gaurav Gogoi (Congress), Sanjay Jaiswal (BJP), Dileshwar Kamait (JD-U), Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJP), Dayanidhi Maran (DMK), Baijayant Panda (BJP), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT), Kodikunnil Suresh (Congress), Anurag Thakur (BJP) and Lalji Verma (SP) as members.