New Delhi: Miffed over the government’s tough stance, the leaders of the Opposition parties decided to scale up their protests by meeting President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday over the demonetisation move and the resultant hardship being faced by ordinary people due to it. The parties will also discuss the hurried passage of the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill without a discussion in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The bill, that is basically a black money amnesty scheme, was passed amid pandemonium.
The decision on meeting the President on Thursday was taken Wednesday evening after another day of complete disorder in Parliament. Trinamul Congress leader Derek O’Brien told this newspaper that the march will be joined by all Opposition parties, including Janata Dal (United), though JD(U) president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest financial gamble till date.
Sources said the decision to scale up the protests and take it outside Parliament to the President was taken after the government refused to budge on not allowing a discussion on demonetisation under a rule that entails voting. The Opposition’s belligerence was evident since the morning, when it disrupted both Houses of Parliament over the demonetisation as well as the Nagrota terror attack.
It was evident by the stance taken by both the treasury benches and the Opposition that back-channel talks on a resolution to the fortnight-long standoff had failed. The Congress and the Trinamul Congress led the Opposition walkout in the Lok Sabha over the demand for an obituary reference to the soldiers who died in the terror attack on the Army camp in Jammu on Tuesday. When members of the treasury benches accused the Opposition of running away from a debate on demonetisation, the Opposition MPs stuck to their demand for a discussion under a rule which entails voting.
“We do not want to divide the House over demonetisation and so we do not want a vote,” said parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar. At one point, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had said she would lay aside all rules and allow the discussion to be held in the Zero Hour. An adamant Opposition, however, kept shouting slogans in the Well of the House.
The Opposition forced two adjournments in the Rajya Sabha as well over the same issues. It rejected the government’s offer for a discussion on the situation along the border and resuming the debate on the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.
Outside Parliament House, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi hit out at the government over the “forceful” passage of the taxation law on Tuesday. He accused the government of helping people who had black money with the amendment in the income-tax laws, adding that half of the unaccounted cash would be returned to them. He said outside Parliament: “The government has given 50 per cent of the black money back to the hoarders again.”
Asked about the walkout by Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha, Mr Gandhi said: “There is a practice in Parliament that whenever someone dies, we respect them. This is the first time that there was no such obituary offered for those soldiers who had died (in the Nagrota attack). So the Opposition walked out.”
