A boycott by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Tuesday helped the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government pass the Finance Bill quickly in the Lok Sabha. As the NDA walked out just before Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made his opening remarks, the number of speakers were reduced, enabling the Lok Sabha to pass the Bill after just five hours of discussion.
Mukherjee, too, was prepared to find his way through the Opposition ire: He chose to read out a written statement instead of an impromptu speech for his opening remarks. The additional tax sops, too, found place in the opening statement instead of the concluding speech. If the Opposition had disrupted the House, the finance minister would have lost the opportunity to make any impromptu speech. So, Mukherjee chose to pre-empt the Opposition resistance.
There were back-channel talks as well and the NDA, currently engaged in a tussle with the government over the alleged cash-for-vote scandal, made it clear that it would not try to stall the Finance Bill. When the House reassembled at 12 noon, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj demanded that the discussion on the PM’s statement over the cash-for-vote scandal should be done first and then the Finance Bill could be taken.
“When the issue has already been taken up in the House, let it be debated first. We can sit even till 10 o’clock at night to pass the Finance Bill,” Swaraj assured the government in the House. But Mukherjee argued that the government had agreed to have a ‘Short Duration Discussion’ under Rule 193 so the Finance Bill should be passed before the discussion. “The Finance Bill has its own sanctity. So, I would request the Opposition parties to cooperate. Let the Finance Bill be passed and after that they may take up the Short Duration Discussion where both sides will participate and the House will function normally,” he said.
As the NDA had already decided against blocking the Finance Bill, it staged a walkout to allow the government to pass the Bill. At the same time, it kept its demand alive for a discussion. The government has agreed to have a Short Duration Discussion on PM’s statement in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.