Ready To Debate Intolerance, Says GovT Day before Parliament's Winter Session Begins


NEW DELHI: A day before Parliament meets for the winter session, the government on Wednesday said it is ready to debate any issue including intolerance, provided it is "constructive" and not just politics at the cost of India's development.

"There is nothing wrong for an opposition party to have different view on any issue, but the only thing is that it should be constructive. We should not do politics over the questions pertaining to the nation's development, upliftment of the poor and other such things," Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

"We are ready to debate any issue including intolerance in the upcoming winter session of Parliament," Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, shortly before the NDA's Parliamentary executive met at his residence to finalise its plans for two all-party meetings scheduled later

The winter session of Parliament begins in the backdrop of a massive row over actor Aamir Khan's remarks that his wife had suggested leaving India because of repeated instances of intolerance. The government has called Khan's comment a conspiracy by the opposition Congress to defame India.

Other contentious issues likely to disrupt Parliament include the lynching of a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh over beef, the Award Wapsi campaign, and the dal and onion prices. The recent Bihar election, which the BJP lost handsomely, may also figure as the opposition looks forward to corner the government.

Both Naidu as well as Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan have called separate all-party meetings on Wednesday as the government gears up for what is likely to be another stormy month in the House. Nearly 30 bills, including the contentious Goods and Services Tax Bill and the Real Estate Regulation Bills, are slated to be taken up for discussion in Parliament in the winter session.

BJP strategists and political analysts say the government's strategy is to isolate the Congress while quietly persuading other parties to back the GST Bill,a crucial reforms legislation which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured the foreign investors to be a reality in 2016.

The Congress had stalled the passage of the GST Bill in the last session of Parliament over its demand that a revenue-neutral rate not higher than 18 percent be mentioned in the Constitution Amendment bill.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reached out to the Congress, offering to discuss the changes in the GST Bill, but counselled the party to reconsider its suggestions saying some of them can "damage" the system much more than it can benefit.

Jaitley needs Parliament approval for the GST Bill to rollout the new indirect tax regime from planned April 1. "We are reaching out to them, we are willing to discuss with them because some of these suggestions may not necessarily be in the larger interest of the GST structure," he said at an Assocham event.

While the BJP dominates Lok Sabha, it is in a minority in Rajya Sabha. Since the GST is a constitution amendment bill, it needs two-third majority of both the Houses and then should be ratified by the Assemblies of not less than one-half of the states to become a law.

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Source: IANS