Prime Minister Narendra Modi met top ministers before parliament proceedings began on Friday, the third day of the winter session, to discuss the government’s strategy in the face of a united attack by the opposition on the notes ban.
Senior ministers Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and Venkaiah Naidu met the Prime Minister.
Both houses opened to much shouting and were soon adjourned for short periods. In the Rajya Sabha, opposition members are continuing to demand that PM Modi come to the House to listen to the remaining part of a debate on demonetisation and answer their questions.
Lawmakers of the ruling BJP added to the din today, demanding an apology from Leader of the Opposition and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad for comments that he had made on Thursday evening in the house.
Rejecting the opposition’s demand for apology, Mr Azad today said, “BJP should ask apology for pushing the country to edge…They should apologise to people.”
Mr Azad’s comments have now been expunged or deleted from parliament records and cannot be reported in any form.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said a firm no to the opposition demand that PM Modi intervene in the Rajya Sabha debate. He also reiterated that there will no rollback on the government’s decision to ban 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.
But government sources said the Prime Minister could speak in the Lok Sabha, when the lower house discusses the notes ban. The government reckons that the cash crunch situation will have eased considerably by next week when the discussion is likely to take place.
The Lok Sabha has not functioned yet in this session. It was adjourned after obituaries on the first day of the winter session and on Thursday, was adjourned amid loud slogan shouting by the opposition.
Opposition parties have submitted more than 20 adjournment motions in the Lok Sabha seeking a debate with a vote at the end of it on demonetisation. The government has said it is ready for a discussion but not a vote.
Opposition parties have accused the government of making an ill-planned announcement abolishing high value notes that made up 86 per cent of the money in circulation, without thought to the hardship that it would cause to the common people, who have had to queue up for hours for rationed new currency amid a cash crunch.
The government has promised that the crunch is temporary and it is doing everything to ensure the situation eases soon, but that a sudden announcement was necessary to ensure that people with black or untaxed money were caught unawares.
