Second part of Budget session set for washout

The second part of Budget Session of Parliament appears set to be a washout with the Opposition unrelenting on its demand for resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as also ministers P K Bansal and Ashwani Kumar.

With the uproar continuing on the issue, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha adjourned without transacting any business for the tenth day.

As only three days are left for the three-month long session to conclude, the fate of key legislations like National Food Security Bill and Land Acquisition Bill remains uncertain.

Opposition has been saying it was ready for early passage of the two legislations provided the government ensures resignation of Bansal and Kumar.

The only work done in the second phase was the passage of the Finance Bill, which marked the end of the budgetary exercise and the Railway Budget without any discussion with the
opposition walking out.

Congress top brass, including the Prime Minister and party chief Sonia Gandhi, met to discuss the impasse in Parliament amid talk of early sine die adjournment of the session.

A similar deadlock was witnessed during the Winter Session of 2010 over the Opposition demand for setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the alleged scam in 2G spectrum allocation.

Opposition members rushed to the Well in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha raising slogans against the Prime Minister and Railway and Law Ministers leading to adjournment of the two Houses twice before lunch.

Rajya Sabha witnessed high drama when AGP members Kumar Deepak Das and Birendra Kumar Baishya tried to snatch a copy of the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, being moved by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, to ratify the exchange of enclaves agreement signed by India and Bangladesh.