Ansari calls all-party meeting before Budget session

Meeting has been called to ensure a smooth passage of the upcoming Budget Session of the Parliament

Vice-President and chairman of the Rajya Sabha, M Hamid Ansari, has called a meeting of leaders of all parties in the Upper House to ensure smooth passage of the Budget session.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has also called the customary all-party meeting on Monday.

The Rajya Sabha chairman isn’t known to call an all-party meeting before a Parliament session but Ansari has reached out to the parties to ensure the upcoming session transacts business and doesn’t meet a fate similar to the previous two sessions. The Budget session will start on Tuesday and continue until the second week of May, with a month-long recess.

The Vice-President had held an informal meeting with leaders of Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday as well. Ansari has time and again spoken out about the need to change the rules of procedures and business of the Rajya Sabha to ensure smooth functioning of the House.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has also called an all-party meeting on Tuesday. Naidu had met leaders of all parties on February 4. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, had met leaders of all political parties.

The opposition is likely to raise the issues of the suicide of Rohith Vemula, while the BJP is keen to discuss the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row. Several key reform Bills, including the goods and services tax (GST) Constitution amendment Bill, are pending before Parliament.

Opposition parties are also likely to raise the issue of the Centre “undermining” the autonomy of the institutions.

The Rail Budget will be presented on February 25, the Economic Survey on February 26 and the General Budget on February 29. The session will break for a recess from March 17 to April 24.

At a meeting convened by the PM on February 16, Modi assured all Opposition parties that their concerns would be addressed. The government has been unable to push through its legislative agenda because of frequent disruption of the proceedings of the two Houses, particularly the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is in a minority.

At the end of the winter session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said how an ‘un-elected’ House could overrule the mandate of the ‘elected’ House.

In the winter session, the Rajya Sabha saw passage of nine Bills, but lost 47 hours due to disruptions caused almost every day by the Congress, which raised one issue after another.

The Lok Sabha performed slighter better as it passed 13 Bills and saw discussions on various issues such as price rise, floods and drought, despite repeated uproar by the Congress over several matters.