Budget session of Parliament set to get off to a rocky start on Friday

18 Opposition parties to boycott President's address in solidarity with farmers

The Budget Session of Parliament that begins on Friday is set to get off to a rocky start as 18 Opposition parties announced on Thurs­day that they will boycott the President’s address to the joint sitting of both Houses in solidarity with farmers protesting against the three Union laws.

Announcing the decision, Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said the 16 parties also demanded an independent probe into the Centre’s role in the violence that shook the national capital during the farmers’ tractor parade on Republic Day. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said this was “most unfortunate”. 

The parties that will boycott the president’s address on Friday are the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the National Conference, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Trinamool Congress, the Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the CPI, the Indian Union Muslim League, the RSP, the People's Democratic Party, the MDMK, the Kerala Congress (M) and the All India United Democratic Front.

Session agenda 

The most important items on the agenda in the session are the passage of the Budget and related documents — the Economic Survey for 2021-22 on Friday, The Union Budget on Monday, and the report of the Finance Commission.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill is ready with its report and is expected to be tabled in the session. The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill and the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill are likely to be discussed and passed. Pending legislation includes the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill and the Dam Safety Bill.

The Opposition is likely to be extremely active, which might ensure that this session is loud and acrimonious. Not just the farmers’ protest against the three farm laws passed in the Monsoon Session that the government has flatly refused to repeal, but also the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the situation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are expected to be flagged by the Opposition. Opposition parties will also quiz the government on the status of the vaccines, amid extensive doubts over the efficacy of one of the vaccines, and more financial assistance for states to deal with the fallout of the pandemic. 

Among the non-Budget legislative business, the most significant will be the PDP Bill that will be the first comprehensive legislation addressing the digital ecosphere and the right to individual privacy.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that the right to privacy is a fundamental right. The government has drafted a law, but this was referred to a joint parliamentary committee.

Elements of the JPC-drafted Bill, after a clause-by-clause discussion and meetings with more than 100 stakeholders —including companies like Facebook, WhatsApp, Paytm and others —  propose mirroring of data held by companies that have servers in jurisdictions that are not friendly to India. In other words, no strict localisation of data. The changes in the government-drafted Bill relate to the size and composition of the statutory authority that will hear complaints about data breaches. “We have tried to re-formulate the Bill incorporating the voices of those who will be touched by it — not just the bureaucracy and the government,” said a member of the JPC.