Opposition raises 69 issues against President’s speech

In an effort to ensure perfect floor coordination in both Houses of Parliament, the non-NDA parties are jointly working out strategies on how to corner the Narendra Modi government during the ongoing Budget session.

To begin with the parties have decided to follow the strategy of the previous Budget session and move amendments to the motion thanking President Pranab Mukherjee for his address to the joint session of Parliament.

While in the last budget session, the Opposition had amended the motion in the Rajya Sabha by regretting that there was no mention on corruption and black money, this time it proposes to attack the centre over recent political developments.

CPI (M) leader in the Rajya Sabha Sitaram Yechury has prepared 69 amendments to the President’s address regretting that it does not mention issues such as growing communal polarisation, attacks against journalists and security lapses in the country.

“We will move amendments to the President’s speech. Let’s see who will support and who will not,” Yechury said while addressing students from various universities, who were protesting against the Centre, here on Tuesday.

Yechury’s list of amendments, a copy of which is with BusinessLine, said that at the end of the motion, to be moved by the Government, lines such as “but regret that there is no mention in the Address about the serious situation arising in the Central institutions of higher education with specific reference to JNU, Hyderabad Central University and IIT Chennai,” should be added.

It also says that the President should have mentioned issues such as growing attacks against Dalits and Adivasis, doing away with FDI regulations, issues in the public distribution system, failure to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill, chit fund scam in West Bengal, farmers’ suicides, workers’ problems and reservation for backward Muslims.

The Opposition expressed unhappiness at the President’s speech. The Congress said the President did not mention several important issues such as the death of research scholar Rohith Vemula. “I heard the President’s address in Parliament. He spoke about the government’s achievements but nothing on the Rohith issue, what’s happening in the universities,” said Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

The Opposition parties’ effort is to reach out to parties such as the AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal and the Trinamool Congress who are at the moment sitting on the fence. The mention of issues such as lack of a debt relief package to poor states, alleged anti-federal steps by the Centre, the increasing prices of oil products and fertilisers and the universalisation of several Centrally sponsored schemes is seen as an attempt to woo the regional parties.

The government is also taking steps to avoid a concerted attack by the Opposition. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said talks are on with parties even at the individual level. The Opposition leaders, too, are meeting to fine-tune their strategy.

They have demanded that the Centre should take immediate steps to address the issues raised by students — ending alleged caste bias on campuses and doing away with the sedition charges imposed on JNU students. “Let’s see what the government does. Our response will be based on the Centre’s actions. If they don’t pay heed to us, we may have to disrupt the proceedings,” a Congress leader said.