FILE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Associated Press photo)
An all-party meeting has been convened this evening by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan ahead of the Budget session of Parliament on Monday which is expected to be a stormy affair. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend that meeting which is expected to explore consensus over passing key legislation, including bills to replace a slew of ordinances that were severely criticized by the Opposition.
Here are the latest developments:
Ahead of the all-party meeting, PM Modi attended a meeting of leaders of parties in both Houses of Parliament called by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu for "mutual consultations ahead of budget session of Parliament".
The last session was a virtual washout with the opposition holding up proceedings over several issues, including religious conversions. The protests dealt to a severe blow to PM Modi's reform agenda which then chose the ordinance route to push important policy changes.
Key among the ordinances include raising the foreign investment limit in insurance to 49 per cent from 26 per cent, auctioning coal mines and changing the rules of land acquisitions.
The land ordinance especially has come under fire from several farmer organisations and opposition parties, forcing a rethink on the part of the government. Senior leaders of the BJP met last evening to explore the possibility of modifications to the land ordinance, sources have told NDTV.
The ordinances have to be ratified by Parliament within six months, or it expires.
The Congress has already declared that it would oppose the Bills meant to replace the ordinances contending that the changes brought about in the relevant laws are "not acceptable" to it. "It will be bizarre for govt to be expecting support from Congress after it has diluted UPA's policies & programmes for needy," Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, had tweeted on Friday.
In its seven months in office, the government has used the ordinance, or emergency executive order, 10 times due to its lack of majority in the upper house of Parliament or Rajya Sabha, where the opposition Congress has most numbers and has led other parties in holding up proceedings on a number of issues, not allowing legislation to be passed.
The opposition says an ordinance is an emergency provision given by the Constitution that must be used sparingly.
The Centre's aggressive ordinance policy was even questioned by President Pranab Mukherjee who last month asked three union ministers to explain the urgency on the land acquisitions ordinance before signing off on it.
The government then decided not to take the ordinance route to push changes, at least till the Budget session of Parliament.
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