The Winter Session of Parliament had a stormy start. Beginning at 10 am, the session was adjourned in both Houses on its very first day. “The US government has taken a case strongly, an incident that happened in India,” said Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge while asking for a discussion on the US government라이브 바카라 indictment of Adani for corruption. By 11:45 am, the RS Speaker declared adjournment saying that the Opposition was creating a ruckus.
Set to go on till December 20, the winter session has the government listing 15 bills, of which the Bill to amend the Waqf law is likely be the most discussed, say political analysts, with the bribery case on Adani being a close second.
“The contention this winter session will be between the Wakt Law Bill and the Adani issue. This what is going to dominate the Parliament,” says Ajay Gudavadthy, an associate professor at JNU. In particular, experts say the BJP has come with an agenda— “the PM has a couple of issues on his agenda—the Waqt Bill, One Nation One Election and the UCC. In this particular term, my sense is that these three items will pass as they are putting in a lot of effort into them” adds Shaikh Mujibur Rehman, author of Shikwa-e- Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims who teaches at Jamia Millia Central University.
With Parliament reconvening on Wednesday, November 27, experts say that “the Wakt is a vey significant issue.” The initial optimism that Modi라이브 바카라 third term being a coalition government would curtail his power to make significant changes to the Indian legal framework appear to have been “overly optimistic,” says Rehman. “Even if Nitish Kumar and Naidu are from outside, they are behaving as much loyal to BJP as any other of the loyal Chief Ministers of India, so therefore I do not see a major friction happening in the coalition. This is PM's show and that is how it operates and will continue to operate,” he added.
Meanwhile, they point out that the charges against Adani have not galvanised the public in the way the Opposition had hoped. Gudavadthy believes this is because the Opposition have failed to create an engaging narrative for the public. “The BJP is very good at taking each issue as part of a larger story. But the Opposition looks at each issue as a stand-alone issue that is what I understand is their self-defeatist part. I'm surprised the Opposition has not become better at it by now,” he says.
Adding to this, Rehman says, “Wakt Bill seems to be on top of the agenda and that is more the real issue; Adani is secondary. I don't think there is any Indian company that is entirely free of corruption and stuff like that—only those corporates are doing well that have managed to leverage with the State. There are far more substantive issues in our country that need looking at.”
Experts add that it is in the BJP라이브 바카라 interest to let the Wakt Bill hang through the session as it will create more polarity, which the party can use to its favour. “BJP throws up these issues not necessarily for them to be immediately acted upon. They would also want the debate on Wakt Board to linger on in the Parliament and provoke or polarise the Opposition to kind of protest and either which way the debate goes, the BJP would imagine that they will benefit them in the coming elections in Delhi and other places,” says Gudavadthy.
The Winter Session will also deal with fourteen other bills including the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, and the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill. The former, if allowed, will lower the minimum government holding in public sector banks from 51 per cent to 26 per cent. The Bill also changes the definition of a fortnight for non-scheduled banks. Financial employees protested this Bill before, but to no avail.
Experts, too, do not believe the Bill will get much attention this session, despite its criticality. The problem, says Gudavadthy is that the Opposition라이브 바카라 stance in these issues are not materially different from the ruling party라이브 바카라. “Opposition has no counter because most of these policies were in the pipeline under the UPA. The Banking Bill and ecological bills etc. They don't have any fundamental disagreement except that the BJP is more abrasive and they are very rash, they don't care they just go ahead,” he says.
