Govt lists pending Bills, recall of 75 yrs of House as special session agenda, Oppn reads between the lines

The Bills include the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, introduced during the Monsoon Session in the Lok Sabha; the Advocates (Amendment) Bill and the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha in the Monsoon Session; and the Post Office Bill, introduced in the Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon Session.

The Rajya Sabha agenda also lists the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2023, which was passed by the Lok Sabha in July.

Since the government sprang a surprise by announcing the special session, just over a month after the Monsoon Session had ended, speculation has been rife over what could be on its pre-poll agenda. The Opposition had also been questioning the government’s silence on the issue.

While the agenda outlined by the government on Wednesday was unexceptional, and included legislation in various stages of discussion already in Parliament, sources said there could still be some surprises, and “something more substantive”, over the five days of the session.

Opposition leaders also expressed their apprehension that the government may have something up its sleeve, with one of them pointing out that “the agenda that has been circulated does not seem worthy of a special session”.

Jairam Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, posted on X that the Modi government had been “compelled” to announce the agenda under “pressure”, after Sonia Gandhi wrote to the PM. He added: “The agenda as published at the moment, is much ado about nothing – all this could have waited till Winter session in November. I am sure the legislative grenades are being kept up their sleeves to be unleashed at the last moment as usual.”

Senior Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien said the agenda has a caveat, “not to be taken as exhaustive”, and wondered whether the government was up to some “dirty tricks”.

However, a section of BJP leaders said one reason the government wanted to hold the special session was that the Winter Session of Parliament, otherwise held in November-December, could be delayed due to the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram. The government wanted to highlight its recent “successes” such as hosting of the G20 Summit and the Chandrayaan 3 mission, in the House before the polls, they said.

As for more ambitious moves, there is still speculation that issues over which there is a larger consensus – putting the Opposition in a dilemma, and exposing the divides within – might still be on the table. The biggest buzz is over a women’s reservation Bill to provide quota for women in Parliament and Assemblies, apart from a proposal to reinstate statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Opposition would have little ground to attack the government on either issue.

The J&K move will also help the government ward off the heat from the Supreme Court, which recently asked the Centre if it had a time frame to restore statehood to the region, while hearing pleas challenging the abrogation of Article 370.

While most parties in the INDIA bloc are in favour of women’s reservation, it could run into some hiccups when it comes to the Samajwadi Party and RJD. The two parties, with their strong caste bases, want “quota within the quota”, or caste- and community- based quotas within the reservation block for women. “Parties like the Congress would have difficulties with that,” an Opposition leader admitted.

The women’s Bill is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated emphasis on Naari Shakti, while talking about his government’s schemes for women, such as Ujjwala Yojana, toilet-building mission and Jal Jeevan programme. The BJP sees women electors – turning out in ever larger numbers to vote – as a game changer.

On Wednesday, in another pro-women move, the Union Cabinet cleared a grant of Rs 1,650 crore to oil marketing companies for the rollout of ‘Ujjawala 2.0’, under which 75 lakh new LPG connections will be provided over three years.

Last week, Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said the day was not far when women would get their “due representation” in the country’s legislatures, and on Wednesday, President Droupadi Murmu called for more representation of women in politics at a speech in the Gujarat Assembly.

Earlier on Wednesday, a meeting of Union ministers was held to discuss the agenda for the session. Sources said that the meeting, held at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence and attended by almost a dozen ministers, was on the pending Bills in Parliament, and was “routine”, to explain logistics.

Some ministers mentioned that the Opposition might raise some issues to attack the government, such as the apparent push to change the name of the country to Bharat from India, plans for a Uniform Civil Code and for one nation-one polls. Sources said it was suggested that BJP MPs counter this by questioning the Opposition over its stand on the Sanatan Dharma row.

The CEC Bill which is to come up for discussion in the special session seeks to establish a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Cabinet minister nominated by the PM for selecting members of the Election Commission (EC). In March this year, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court had set up a high-power committee consisting of the PM, LoP and Chief Justice of India to pick the CEC and ECs, “until a law was enacted by Parliament on their appointments”.

The Opposition had questioned the Bill’s provision for a minister instead of the CJI in the panel. On Wednesday, Jairam Ramesh said INDIA parties “will steadfastly oppose the insidious CEC Bill”.