No plans to curtail budget session: Ananth Kumar

The government wants Parliament's budget session to run to its full schedule and transact maximum business, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said today, seeking to end speculation that it may curtail the session.
Asking all parties to let the house function, Kumar said the government wants to have "meaningful discussions".
"There are no plans to curtail the session. We want to complete the session... There are so many bills such as Medical Council of India and the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act that we want passed in this session," Kumar told reporters here.
His remarks came after reports of opposition parties claiming that the government wants to curtail the session after transacting the financial business required for implementation of the Union Budget.

The minister also labelled the Congress a "falling, failing and faltering organisation" and attacked it for not following parliamentary traditions and using Parliament as a mere platform to give speeches.
Kumar added that Congress president Rahul Gandhi went abroad because he could not face defeat in the elections.

"The party is splintering under him and such a party cannot hold any coalition," Kumar said, replying to a query on the Congress hosting a dinner for opposition leaders this evening.
He termed the dinner a "futile exercise" and said the opposition would not gather any momentum from such an exercise.
"The Congress is not only diminishing as a political entity but also disintegrating and this is harsh reality. There can't be any stable and coalition around such party," he said.