Today’s bandh to decide government & Opposition's next move; PM Narendra Modi targets shutdown call

NEW DELHI: The government is not expecting any smooth conduct of Parliament proceedings on Monday as the Opposition is focused on making its all-India protest against demonetisation a success. Instead, the BJP-led Centre will work on some non-NDA parties this week to ensure some business in the House in the remaining four days.

Future strategy of both the government and Opposition will be based on the response of the ‘Akrosh Divas’ call given by the Opposition on November 28. The government’s main concern is to ensure there is no panic in the first week of December when the demand for cash will go up drastically.

Sources said while informal talks with various parties on an individual basis between senior NDA ministers and the Opposition leaders are on, a serious effort will only be made on Tuesday. Criticising Opposition’s protest, PM Modi, at a BJP rally in Kushinagar, said: “The government is working to end the flow of black money and corruption but they (opposition) are talking about Bharat Bandh.”

“The PM has given a clarion call for a ‘cultural revolution’ against the 55-year-old eight-fold decadent culture of ‘corruption, opportunism, nepotism, greed, repression, exploitation of power, sycophancy and self-seeking’ epitomised by the family-centric Congress during its long rule,” Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said.

The government also did not buy the Congress argument that in August 2013 Opposition had insisted that the then PM Manmohan Singh sit through the 2G allocation “scam” debate. “2G was a clear-cut case of corruption and a scam in which the CAG and SC had already expressed their views. Moreover, the then government was not even agreeing to a debate. We have said we are ready for a debate and have accepted that PM should intervene in the debate. But PM cannot be present throughout the debate,” MoS for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told ET.

Since the GST Council meeting is scheduled to be held on December 2-3, the government is also not in a hurry to get its bills passed. The two GST Bills will only be brought to the House after the tax rates are decided.