The ice was formally broken at a meeting of floor leaders convened by Speaker Om Birla on Monday evening. The government, which introduced the Coastal Shipping Bill, 2024, in the Lok Sabha on Monday amid the din, will push for more legislation from Tuesday, including the Banking Laws (Amend) Bill, 2024. The Congress MPs will stage a protest outside Parliament House on Tuesday morning on the ‘Adani issue’ and then allow functioning of both the Houses.
The Congress had, last week, demanded a debate on the Constitution anniversary as its back-up agenda for tactical retreat from the ‘Adani issues’ after many allies refused to join it. Seizing the opening, the government had conveyed last week itself its willingness for a ‘Constitution debate’ and on Monday it proposed to Congress floor leaders KC Venugopal, Kodikunnil Suresh, Manickam Tagore and Gaurav Gogoi the dates for ‘Constitution debate’ in the LS to be on December 13-14 (and December 16-17 in Rajya Sabha).
According to sources, when the Congress side made one more attempt in the Speaker’s chamber on Monday morning to push for debating the ‘Adani indictment issue’ while accepting the dates for the Constitution debate, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who was present, said “there is no precedent” of the Indian Parliament discussing “developments in the courts of US”.
Later, Congress chose to make use of the tactical retreat route at the Speaker’s meeting by citing “government agreeing’ to the Constitution debate. ET had reported last week that the mood of the INDIA bloc leaders was against stalling the entire session by making the Adani issue the sole focus.
The INDIA bloc floor leaders’ meeting on Monday once again showcased allies’ impatience with the Congress’ ‘Adani issue’. After TMC, SP nominees kept off Monday’s meeting, the allies also aired to all, including at the meeting conveyed by the Speaker, their need to focus on other issues. The SP sought to raise the Sambal issue, DMK the issue of losses caused by cyclone/heavy rains in Chennai and Puducherry while the TMC pushed for a House discussion on the violence in Bangladesh against the Hindus and Iskcon representatives. The Congress then joined the pitch for making the Parliament function.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiran Rijiju told media persons after a meeting at the Speaker’s office: “Everyone has expressed their concerns over the deadlock in Parliament. We too said that Parliament not functioning is not good. Everyone accepted this. Several demands have been made by the Opposition. The government has approved the proposal before BAC to have a discussion on the Constitution and we hold that discussion in Lok Sabha on December 13-14 and in Rajya Sabha on December 16-17. “
