New Delhi: On the second day of Parliament’s monsoon session, the Congress-led opposition continued to put pressure on the Centre by continuing to flag public issues like price rise, faulty GST, privatization of banks and the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme. The two Houses of Parliament were disrupted by the opposition over these issues on Monday as well.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm on Tuesday as the opposition members raised these issues in the House.
Ahead of the commencement of the Rajya Sabha session, Rahul Gandhi along with several other opposition members defied a directive issued by the Parliament that prohibits protests or dharnas within the Parliament Complex. The opposition leaders held a protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in the Parliament House complex, where they raised slogans against the recent hike in prices of packed curd, paneer, rice, pulses, bread and other items due to an additional 5 per cent GST.
Also read: Both Houses of Parliament adjourned till 2 pm amid Opposition protest
Rahul Gandhi attacked the PM over the issue. “This government says all is well when food items have become costly and the price of an LPG cylinder is Rs 1053. This means the government believes that price rise is a people’s problem,” Rahul said in a Facebook post.
“When PM was in opposition, he had made price rise a big issue. But today he has pushed people into an abyss of problems and is silent. The Congress stands with the common people and will raise their issues inside the parliament,” he said.
The Wayanad MP said the PM could ban the use of words inside Parliament but would have to answer the opposition. Inside the two Houses, several opposition MPs submitted notices for adjournment of daily business demanding a discussion over price rise and the Agnipath scheme. The notices were submitted by Congress Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore and party MP in Rajya Sabha Shakti Sinh Gohil. RJD MP Manoj Jha too submitted a similar notice in the upper House.
The coordinated attempt was meant to put pressure on the government, which has been alleging that the opposition was obstructing the functioning of Parliament, by focusing on the burning issues, which affect the common people. “We are not running away from debate. We are ready to take part in government business but the issues we want to raise should also be discussed in parliament,” said Gohil.
The Congress, which had planned the protests in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue a day before to send a message, said that it will oppose a bill to push privatization of public sector banks.
“Today, 53 years ago, banks were nationalized. It was a transformational change. Now, the Modi government is on a privatization spree. Public sector banks must be equipped to face competition, but selling them off to a chosen few will be disastrous. Congress will oppose the bank sale bill,” Congress member Jairam Ramesh said.
“The banks were nationalized by former prime minister Indira Gandhi for the benefit of the people. This government wants to reduce the number of public banks and ultimately have just one bank, the State Bank of India,” the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said.
