The Business Advisory Committee of the Rajya Sabha finally met on Wednesday after two attempts to hold it came a cropper in the wake of the Jagdeep Dhankhar episode. Deputy Chairperson Harivansh chaired the meeting which was attended by Leader of the House JP Nadda, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and representatives of various parties. Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge kept away from the meeting and the Congress was represented by Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh.
The BAC meeting was initially scheduled for Monday evening but with Nadda and Rijiju excusing themselves on the pretext that they had to attend to some other important business, it was postponed to Tuesday afternoon. However, due to Dhankhar’s resignation, it was postponed yet again to Wednesday.
The Opposition members demanded in the BAC meeting that Rajya Sabha should also have a 16-hour debate like the Lok Sabha though the government was of the view that since the Upper House has roughly half the strength of the Lower House, nine hours would be sufficient. It finally accepted the Opposition demand.
The other demand of starting the debate this week itself was not conceded to by the government which suggested shifting it to next week as the prime minister would be back by then from his visit to UK and Maldives. The PM left for the UK, where the two nations are expected to sign the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), on Wednesday.
Modi had focused on Operation Sindoor in his customary address to the media before the commencement of the monsoon session, saying MPs cutting across party lines should celebrate in Parliament the victory over Pakistan.The Opposition has been demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak on Operation Sindoor in the Parliament. While the Treasury Benches had planned that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would reply to the debate in both Houses, there is a high probability that Modi will participate in the debate.Government has already breached Opposition unity on the Operation Sindoor issue by nominating prominent faces from the rival camp in the parliamentary delegations that were sent to various countries to propagate India’s message of fighting terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil. Opposition leaders like Shashi Tharoor (if his party fields him), Manish Tewari (Congress), Kanimozhi (DMK), Supriya Sule (NCP-SP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Asadudin Owaisi (AIMIM), and Priyanka Chaturvedi (SS-UBT) will speak about their role and experience on the tour to different countries.
The Opposition has two major issues to flag on Operation Sindoor- the claim of US President Donald Trump that he facilitated the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, and reports of some Indian fighter planes being shot down on the night of May 7.
