Stage set for fresh House fury

New Delhi: Amid a stand-off with the Opposition in Parliament, the government has hardened its stand and gone ahead and listed the demonetisation issue to be discussed on Monday in the Lok Sabha under a rule which does not entail voting.

The “demonetisation of currency notes to weed out black money” has been listed for discussion under Rule 193, which does not have any provision for voting.

The Opposition has been demanding a discussion either under Rule 56 which is accompanied by an adjournment motion or under Rule 184, under which there is voting, but the discussion is limited to just a day.

The government has stuck to its position of not allowing a discussion on any rule under which voting can be done.

Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said, “We do not want the house to be divided on this issue of national importance.”

Also interesting is the wording of the discussion. The motion calls for discussion on demonetisation to weed out black money and not hardships faced due to demonetisation which the Opposition has been demanding.

The Opposition which include chiefly the Congress, Left and the Trinamul Congress has been staging vociferous protests in the both the Houses of Parliament over the issue.

“The government is running away from a discussion on demonetisation. They do not want the hardships being faced by the people to be discussed on the floor of the House,” CPI(M) politburo member and Lok Sabha leader M. Salim told this newspaper.

Interestingly, among the MPs who had given notices for the discussion to be conducted under this rule, are Shiv Sena’s Anand Rao Adsul and RSP’s N.K. Premachandaran.

The Shiv Sena has been vocal in its opposition of demonetisation, It even accompanied TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in her march to the Presid-ent’s House against the decision to ban old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

The RSP is an ally of the Congress in Kerala. Mr Premachandran, an MP from Kollam in Kerala, has been a vocal opponent of demonetisation both within and outside the Lok Sabha.

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal said that the petition given by Mr Premachandran was an old one and the government was including his name now to divide the Opposition.

However, leaders of almost all Opposition parties said that they hadn’t decided on any floor strategy as of now and would take a call at an early morning meeting on Monday.

Mr Salim said: “When we go to Parliament, we do not go with a view of disrupting, so we will decide later. But this is the government’s way of bulldozing its view”.

Trinamul Congress chief whip Sudip Bandopadhyay also said that a decision on strategy would be taken at a morning meeting of Opposition parties on Monday.