As the winter session of Parliament gets underway on Wednesday, topics that will dominate the sessions include the current border dispute with China at LAC, inflation and unemployment and alleged misuse of government agencies. The winter session will go on till December 29.
As many as 16 new bills, such as the Trade Marks (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, will also be tabled.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat has also informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with the media on Wednesday ahead of the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament.
All-party meeting
The Centre had called an all-party meeting of floor leaders on Tuesday to discuss important issues likely to be discussed in the Winter Session. Defence Minister and deputy leader of Lok Sabha Rajnath Singh chaired the meeting. Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi were also present.
During the meeting, Joshi detailed the Centre's legislative agenda for the session while seeking the opposition's cooperation for the passage of bills. He also promised to discuss issues raised by political parties as per the norms and procedures of Parliament.
The all-party meeting saw various political parties, including the opposition Congress and the Trinamool Congress, bring up the topic of alleged misuse of investigating agencies. Aam Aadmi Party and Nationalist Congress Party too raised the issue.
The meeting also had the Congress leaders lashing out at the government for not "properly" informing the opposition about the stand-off at the Sino-India border. The issue of the killings of Kashmiri Pandits is also likely to heat the discussions on the floor.
Congress leader Naseer Hussain, who attended the meeting in the absence of the chief whip of the party in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh, demanded discussions on the appointment of an Election Commissioner in just one day and also on the quota for the economically weaker section (EWS).
Other issues raised at the all-party meeting include the women's reservation bill, a demand raised by the BJD and supported by TMC, Congress, NCP and the TRS. The Shiv Sena's Shinde faction sought a population control bill.
In total, members of opposition parties have detailed around 16 issues for raising during the session.
The recent cyber attack on AIIMS, failure to provide legal sanctity to minimum support price (MSP), and a rethink on the EWS reservation after the Supreme Court verdict are other topics that will be raised at the winter session.
The recent conflict between the judiciary and the government, the falling rupee and declining GDP growth and alleged voter "theft" in Karnataka are also likely to be sticking points between the opposition and the government.
Interestingly, the results of Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are likely to have an impact on the sessions.
Rahul Gandhi and several senior Congress leaders who are undertaking the Bharat Jodo Yatra are unlikely to attend the session.
(With inputs from PTI)
