New Delhi:
At a breakfast meeting with Opposition leaders this morning, Pranab Mukherjee seems to have managed a compromise on the issue that stalled Parliament all of last week: a debate on rising prices.
Mukherjee, who is the Finance Minister and the Congress' main trouble-shooter, met with senior BJP leaders. The compromise formula sees the BJP giving up its demand for a vote on the issue. Instead, both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will adopt a resolution on the issue, which will register the Opposition's concern on the impact of rising prices on the "aam admi" or common man.
The crisis during this Monsoon session of Parliament was over the Opposition's insistence that any discussion on price rise end with a vote. The government said it welcomes a debate, but not a vote, because it has already sailed through a cut motion on the same issue earlier this year.
A vote would have exposed the government's dependence in the Rajya Sabha on Opposition leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav, who, in the cut motion earlier this year, voted with the government, helping it in the Upper House where its numbers are slim. In the Lok Sabha, the government and its allies are much stronger.
The Lower House will discuss the issue on Tuesday. This will be followed by Speaker Meira Kumar reading out a resolution expressing "sense of the House" on the price rise issue.
A similar procedure will be followed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with Chairman Hamid Ansari moving the resolution after discussions.
The text of the resolution that will be adopted was carefully-negotiated. The BJP wanted to use the phrase "aam admi"; the Congress did not want the phrase "price rise" to be included.
"They were not using the word 'common man', so we objected. Now the words 'adverse impact of inflationary pressure on the common man' have been included in the resolution," Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told PTI.
The government told the Opposition it could not accept "price rise" in the resolution, arguing that the issue is a continuing phenomenon; instead the term "inflationary pressure" should be used, it said. (With PTI inputs)
Mukherjee, who is the Finance Minister and the Congress' main trouble-shooter, met with senior BJP leaders. The compromise formula sees the BJP giving up its demand for a vote on the issue. Instead, both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will adopt a resolution on the issue, which will register the Opposition's concern on the impact of rising prices on the "aam admi" or common man.
The crisis during this Monsoon session of Parliament was over the Opposition's insistence that any discussion on price rise end with a vote. The government said it welcomes a debate, but not a vote, because it has already sailed through a cut motion on the same issue earlier this year.
A vote would have exposed the government's dependence in the Rajya Sabha on Opposition leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav, who, in the cut motion earlier this year, voted with the government, helping it in the Upper House where its numbers are slim. In the Lok Sabha, the government and its allies are much stronger.
The Lower House will discuss the issue on Tuesday. This will be followed by Speaker Meira Kumar reading out a resolution expressing "sense of the House" on the price rise issue.
A similar procedure will be followed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with Chairman Hamid Ansari moving the resolution after discussions.
The text of the resolution that will be adopted was carefully-negotiated. The BJP wanted to use the phrase "aam admi"; the Congress did not want the phrase "price rise" to be included.
"They were not using the word 'common man', so we objected. Now the words 'adverse impact of inflationary pressure on the common man' have been included in the resolution," Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told PTI.
The government told the Opposition it could not accept "price rise" in the resolution, arguing that the issue is a continuing phenomenon; instead the term "inflationary pressure" should be used, it said. (With PTI inputs)
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