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Important BJP leaders are beginning to concede it will be neither practical nor politically beneficial for the party to continue to disrupt parliamentary proceedings in the budget session. They, however, insist that it is firm on the demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the 2G spectrum scandal.
Officially, the BJP's stand is to wait and watch for what is on offer at Tuesday's meeting of Opposition party leaders called by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee before finalising its strategy. But a view is growing in the party that it will gain nothing by continuing with the tactics it followed in the winter session during which Parliament was not at all allowed to function except on day one.
“Presentation of the budget has a certain sanctity,” chief BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday in response to a question whether the party would allow the government to present the Union budget if a JPC was not set up. He added the strategy would be decided immediately before the session.
On Saturday another leader said: “The BJP does not want to be blamed for continued disruption of Parliament, Besides, there are numerous and pressing economic issues of concern to the people that need to be discussed, including inflation and black money stashed away in tax havens abroad.”
It was also pointed out there was talk of the government wanting to bring in the Lokpal Bill and legislation on land acquisition. The BJP cannot afford to prevent Parliament from taking up these important issues, one leader said.
This sounded quite different from the speech made by the former president Rajnath Singh, who at a public meeting in Kanpur on Saturday was reported to have indicated the party would continue with its stalling tactics if the government did not concede the JPC demand. But that claim is being dismissed as rhetoric.
None of the principal BJP players who will be involved in working out the budget session strategy — L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj or Arun Jaitley — has given direct answers to the question posed to them over the last one week: will the BJP continue its disruptive tactics if the government does not concede a JPC? All of them said the strategy was yet to be finalised.
Clearly, the BJP hopes Mr. Mukherjee will bring to the table a formula that will make it easier for both sides to ensure a smooth budget session. Party leaders are dismissing the offer of a “debate” in Parliament on whether or not there should be a JPC. “We will reject such an offer,” a leader said adding, “the government must concede our demand or reject it.”
Anxiety on both sides
There is anxiety on both sides, the ruling and the Opposition, over the budget session going the way of the winter session. And the main Opposition is not too sure how a signal that it is preventing Parliament from working will work out politically on the ground. There is also the view that after the arrest of the former Communications Minister, A. Raja, the Opposition stance that the government is doing nothing would not wash.
A couple of senior party leaders privately said, at the end of the winter session, they did not approve of the BJP preventing Parliament from functioning.
Making a political point was one thing, but not allowing the House to function began to look like an anti-democratic stance, they said, adding they hoped the budget session would be different.
Officially, the BJP's stand is to wait and watch for what is on offer at Tuesday's meeting of Opposition party leaders called by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee before finalising its strategy. But a view is growing in the party that it will gain nothing by continuing with the tactics it followed in the winter session during which Parliament was not at all allowed to function except on day one.
“Presentation of the budget has a certain sanctity,” chief BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday in response to a question whether the party would allow the government to present the Union budget if a JPC was not set up. He added the strategy would be decided immediately before the session.
On Saturday another leader said: “The BJP does not want to be blamed for continued disruption of Parliament, Besides, there are numerous and pressing economic issues of concern to the people that need to be discussed, including inflation and black money stashed away in tax havens abroad.”
It was also pointed out there was talk of the government wanting to bring in the Lokpal Bill and legislation on land acquisition. The BJP cannot afford to prevent Parliament from taking up these important issues, one leader said.
This sounded quite different from the speech made by the former president Rajnath Singh, who at a public meeting in Kanpur on Saturday was reported to have indicated the party would continue with its stalling tactics if the government did not concede the JPC demand. But that claim is being dismissed as rhetoric.
None of the principal BJP players who will be involved in working out the budget session strategy — L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj or Arun Jaitley — has given direct answers to the question posed to them over the last one week: will the BJP continue its disruptive tactics if the government does not concede a JPC? All of them said the strategy was yet to be finalised.
Clearly, the BJP hopes Mr. Mukherjee will bring to the table a formula that will make it easier for both sides to ensure a smooth budget session. Party leaders are dismissing the offer of a “debate” in Parliament on whether or not there should be a JPC. “We will reject such an offer,” a leader said adding, “the government must concede our demand or reject it.”
Anxiety on both sides
There is anxiety on both sides, the ruling and the Opposition, over the budget session going the way of the winter session. And the main Opposition is not too sure how a signal that it is preventing Parliament from working will work out politically on the ground. There is also the view that after the arrest of the former Communications Minister, A. Raja, the Opposition stance that the government is doing nothing would not wash.
A couple of senior party leaders privately said, at the end of the winter session, they did not approve of the BJP preventing Parliament from functioning.
Making a political point was one thing, but not allowing the House to function began to look like an anti-democratic stance, they said, adding they hoped the budget session would be different.