The Indian Parliament building.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: After a week of washout, Parliament is expected to witness vigorous business in the coming week, with discussions on Operation Sindoor to take place in both Houses.
Slated to speak on the subject are Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, among others.
The Opposition and the Treasury benches are expected to lock horns over Operation Sindoor. While the Opposition has been demanding a discussion on it as well as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, the government has committed to discussing only the security operation.
On Friday, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said decisions on whether the SIR would be discussed were yet to be made.
“There are many issues the Opposition wants to raise, and we have told them we will raise them one by one… All issues cannot be discussed together. The Opposition has raised the SIR in Bihar; we have told them that Operation Sindoor will be discussed first as per their demand. We will then decide what issues will be subsequently discussed,” Rijiju said.
While government sources remained tight-lipped, there were significant indications that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would speak during the discussion — something the Opposition has been demanding.
At the Business Advisory Committee meetings of both Houses, it was decided that in each House, the Operation Sindoor discussion would take place across 16 hours. While the discussion in the Lok Sabha would begin on Monday, the one in the Rajya Sabha would commence on Tuesday.
In the Lok Sabha, the BJP is expected to field its heavyweights, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Anurag Thakur, Baijayant Panda, Nishikant Dubey, and Tejaswi Surya, besides Shah and Rajnath.
The Congress is likely to field Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Gaurav Gogoi, and Manish Tewari, besides Rahul.
Besides Akhilesh, Rajeev Rai will speak from the SP, which has been allotted over an hour.
The TDP, which has been allotted half an hour, has three speakers, including Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu and Harish Balayogi. The third speaker is yet to be decided.
In the Rajya Sabha, BJP president J P Nadda and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge will speak from either side of the aisle.