Team Herald
NEW DELHI: The Union Budget for 2018-19, the last full budget of the Modi government, as well as related finance and appropriation bills and the fourth supplementary budget for current fiscal, were on Wednesday passed by the Lok Sabha by a voice vote in 30 minutes straight, without debate amid the pandemonium continuing for the eighth day of the second phase of the budget session.
The hurry with which the government finished the financial business in a single day indicates its plan to wind up the session to escape the negative vibes from the issues like the PNB bank scam, Rafale aircraft deal and farmers’ plight that the Opposition wants to discuss.
Though listed only at 5 PM, alike on Tuesday, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan shifted this part of the business relating to the budget to 12 noon in the morning when the House met briefly and adjourned due to the ruckus. The opposition members, who did not join the protest in the well, kept shouting “No,” “No” when the Speaker proceeded to take voice vote but she just ignored them.
The House was adjourned at 12.35 for Thursday amid the ruling BJP MPs indicating that the Parliament session which was to last till April 6 may be cut shot and adjourned sine die on Friday itself as the most important financial business has been concluded.
The BJP had issued a whip to the party MPs to be present in the House and they were present in full strength, the only exception being Prime Minister Modi who did not turn up as he may not be subjected to disciplinary action.
All cut-motions were clubbed together and rejected by a single voice vote taken by the Speaker and then she ran through the entire list of the budget demands of all 99 ministries that were guillotined to pass the budget. Even the finance bill to give effect to taxation proposals in the budget was passed in the din without any debate, after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley brought changes through as many as 21 amendments.
The Trinamul Congress walked out just as the finance bill was being rushed while the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) abstained. Members of the Congress, Left, NCP and other opposition parties kept protesting at not allowing debate on demands of six ministries, including railway and agriculture, listed in the agenda. Only Tuesday evening, they had filed a joint memorandum to the Speaker to protest at the guillotine move despite enough time to discuss the budget till April 6 when Parliament is to end the session.
The budget and the Bills to go with it now are traditionally required to be moved in the Rajya Sabha, which is supposed to approve them within two weeks. However, the same kind of daily ruckus there may prompt the government to adjourn the session as the Constitution allows clearance of the finance business without the Rajya Sabha’s formal approval. As usual, the Rajya Sabha was first adjourned till 2 PM and then for the day on Wednesday.
Even in the din, the Samajwadi Party and Congress members could be heard raising loud slogans to protest at attempts to swing the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-election result in the BJP’s favour by removing the media: “UP Sarkar Hay, Hay,” and “Loktantra ki hatya band karo.”
The banking scam of fugitive Nirav Modi remained listed for discussion in both the Houses but could not be taken up due to the daily pandemonium. The government said it was ready for the discussion from day one but the Opposition and in particular Congress blocked it by creating din. The Congress, however, blamed the government for prompting its allies Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and AIADMK to block the debate by creating ruckus every time the two Houses met, raising slogans with placards for special status and central funds to Andhra Pradesh and constitution of a Cauvery water management board respectively.
