New Delhi:
It has been a stormy day in Parliament already, with three adjournments of both Houses and a scathing attack by the Opposition on the government on the Dantewada Naxal issue.
Parliament reconvened for the Budget session on Thursday after a recess.
The Left and the BJP stalled proceedings with their demands for a discussion on the massacre in which 76 fighting men lost their lives. Home Minister, P Chidambaram is scheduled to make a statement today, but with repeated adjournments, that has not happened yet. An angry Opposition wants a full discussion on the Dantewada attack.
Chidambaram has been under attack even from within the party - senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh criticised him for his rigid policies on fighting the Naxals.
In the Lok Sabha, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha spoke scathingly of the divide in the ruling coalition, saying Digvijay had challenged the whole government, not just the Home Minister. "When we need to stand together in this fight, the ruling coalition is divided", he said. His party joined in a chorus of condemnation.
Sinha also asked why the Home Minister was silent on the Naxal attack.
The UPA government has been bracing for a stormy session with the Opposition armed with several issues. Apart from the Dantewada attack, the government's strength in the Lok Sabha may be put to test with the Opposition united in bringing a cut motion on price rise.
The Opposition - BJP and allies and the Left parties - have also made clear that the Shashi Tharoor imbroglio is another storm the UPA will have to face. A united Opposition wants Tharoor to quit as Minister of State.
The Congress brass burned the midnight oil Wednesday through Thursday trying to fix a strategy in Parliament. The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will move the Finance Bill today and the Congress is seeing the Opposition's plan to move a cut motion as the biggest threat, though it is aware that the Shashi Tharoor-IPL tangle may also put the government's prestige at stake.
Bansal has appealed to the Opposition to support smooth running of the Houses. "Yes, we may just have a wafer thin majority but we have a majority this is known and we can't understand why the Opposition is behaving like this stalling and destabilising the government," Bansal said.
He added that, "We would appeal to every member that in view of the progress the country has made, in view of the quick recovery that we've registered after the economic downturn the world over...all members should be supporting the government's move on that."
The Opposition is also well aware of how numbers stack up. On Thursday morning the BJP said the main focus in Parliament today would be the cut motion on price rise and that its objective was to bring prices under control, not to bring the government down.
Left leader D Raja said his front would support the cut motion and that the primary concern would be price rise.
Not that Shashi Tharoor can hope his latest controversy will not come up. BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday that, "the nation is not satisfied", indicating there could be some noise on the Tharoor-IPL tangle.