Opposition petitions speaker against government's move to 'bulldoze' Finance Bill

New Delhi: Major Opposition parties have urged Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to prevent the government from using the guillotine to push through the Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill.

They alleged the government had ‘stagemanaged’ Parliament deadlock to skirt a debate on Nirav Modi-PNB fraud and Rafale fighter jet deal and was ‘planning to bulldoze’ the Finance Bill and Appropriation Bill without proper discussion.

The Opposition also took objection to the government’s plan to club 20 other bills along the two finance bills. The Opposition apprehends that the government may opt for an early adjournment of the budget session after rushing through the bills.


“The government is organising disruption by making BJP allies rake up issues,” said Congress floor leaders Mallikarjun K h a r g e a n d Jyotiraditya Scindia.

They wondered why the Speaker who had once suspended Congress MPs only chooses to adjourn the House when TDP, TRS, AIADMK MPs protested. “The government is clubbing the bill to amend the repealed Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 1976, with retrospective effect. This is unjustifiable. How can the government even club bills to hike salaries of judges and MPs with finance bills? It is an attempt at backdoor legislation,” said RSP’s NK Premachandran.

The Opposition parties also pointed out that though the Business Advisory Committee had decided to allocate time till March 14 to discuss six departments-related budgetary demands, no such discussion took place.