Opposition in India Set to Corner Federal Government on Various Issues as Budget Session Resumes

Federal Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamana presented the Budget during the first segment of the Budget session of the Indian Parliament that kicked off on 29 February and ended on 11 February. It was followed by a break until 13 March for the standing committee to examine the budgetary allocations.

The opposition parties in India are set to corner the federal government on a range of issues, including inflation and increasing unemployment, as the Parliament’s Budget Session resumes on Monday.

Apart from this, the issue of the evacuation of Indians stranded in Ukraine is likely to be raised.

As the opposition in the legislature will up the ante, the top agenda for the government will be to get the green light from the standing committee for its budgetary proposals and the presentation of the budget for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The budget for Jammu and Kashmir will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament. It is likely to be taken up for discussion in the post-lunch sitting of the House.

The second leg of the Budget Session will conclude on 8 April, and 19 sittings are scheduled to be held. The federal government has identified 14 bills and six financial items to be taken up during the session.

First Session of Budget Session

The first part of the Budget Session began on 29 January and ended on 11 February. Finance Minister Sitharaman presented the budget on 1 February. The focus of the budget was to create nearly six million jobs in the next five years.

Sitharaman presented the budget as a vision for India at 100 years of Independence.

The first part of the session witnessed some stormy moments as opposition Congress party senior member Rahul Gandhi attacked the federal government during a debate on the Motion of Thanks of President Ram Nath Kovind’s address.

Gandhi accused the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of playing with the foundation of the country, and said poor people could observe that India's richest 100 have more wealth than 550 million people.

"Prime Minister should start uniting these two Indias at the earliest. I am very worried about my country standing where it's standing. You're putting this nation and its people at huge risk," he stated.

Responding to Gandhi’s attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Congress, accusing it of misgovernance and corruption when it was in power for decades, saying that "Blind opposition is disrespecting democracy".