Union Budget 2021: All-party meet chaired by PM Modi set to be a stormy affair

Cong & other opposition parties plan to corner the govt on a range of issues such as farm distress, China village in Arunachal and handling of vaccination programme

The all-party meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 30 ahead of the Budget session is expected to be a stormy affair as Congress and other opposition parties are planning to corner the government on a range of issues such as farm distress, China village in Arunachal Pradesh and the handling of the government's Covid-19 vaccination programme.

While the government, keen to push its legislative agenda for the Budget session of the Parliament, is expected to agree to take up discussion on all issues, the political rivals are expected to make the most of the chance to corner the government in the midst of poll preparations in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam.

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The all-party meeting will take place a day after the session begins on January 29, and two days before the Union Budget is presented on February 1.

Opposition parties have upped the ante on the government on farm distress and national security issues with Congress asking "where is the 56-inch chest", in an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of a muscular foreign policy.

Raising the issue of rising petrol price, Youth Congress on Wednesday took out a funeral procession of a bike to highlight the plight of common people.

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The tenth round of talks between the union ministers and farmer bodies failed to resolve the nearly two-month-long farmer agitation. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, who will have to negotiate a smooth session for the government, took to Twitter to claim that no other government in the past has done so much for farmers as the government of Modi alleging that, "Congress betrayed farmers for the last 70 years and did nothing for them." "#ModiWithFarmers brought schemes like Soil health card, Kisan Samman Nidhi, Direct Benefit Transfer," he said.

Meanwhile, the prime minister who released Rs 2,691 crore for PMAY-G beneficiaries in Lucknow, slammed the previous governments for their policies and alleged that the poor had to bear the brunt of their wrong policies and intentions.