Congress assures support to govt. in Budget Session

The Congress Party on Tuesday assured support to the BJP-led NDA Government in passing important legislations on the basis of 'merits' in the Budget Session of Parliament.

"We both have told only one thing that the Congress Party would like to assist the government in implementing the bills on the basis of merit," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, told the media after an all-party meeting chaired by Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Azad said the functioning of both houses of Parliament was the responsibility of the government and added that the Opposition should not be blamed if the ruling dispensation fails to run the same in a systematic manner.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, on his part said that the government has agreed to discuss the topics proposed by the grand old party.

"We presented five to six topics to them, including Arunachal, inflation, excise duty and they said they can have a discussion on it. Now they have agreed let's see how the government acts in the Parliament," Kharge said.

"We have kept the issues jointly and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister has promised us that there would be a discussion on those topics. We have told them not to bring the controversial bills at this point of time. The other bills would be presented after taking a consensus from all the parties," he added.

The opposition parties are gearing up to raise the issues of JNU row, and suicide of a Hyderabad University student among others to corner the government.

On the other hand, the government is keen to push its legislative agenda including the GST and Real Estate Bills. During the session, the Rail Budget will be presented on February 25 and the General Budget on February 29.

Since it is the first session of the new calendar year, it will begin with the address of President Pranab Mukherjee to the joint sitting of the two Houses.

The Rajya Sabha, where the NDA lacks majority, had seen repeated disruption in the Monsoon and Winter Sessions with Congress and several other opposition parties blocking key economic reform measures of the government.