‘Arrogant govt can’t dodge debate’: Congress gears up to corner Centre on MGNREGA, SIR

New Delhi: Congress on Tuesday warned the "arrogant” Modi government that it cannot shy away from debating MGNREGA and Special Intensive Revision (SIR) during the upcoming Budget Session by citing that it has already been discussed.

The decision to take up MGNREGA and SIR in a “big way” came at a meeting of Congress’ Parliamentary Strategy Group chaired by Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.

Kharge has also convened a meeting of “all Opposition parties” at his office in Parliament on Wednesday 10 AM to discuss floor strategy for the first leg of the Budget Session, which starts on January 28 and ends on February 13. The second leg starts on March 9 and ends on April 2.

After the meeting, Congress General Secretary Syed Naseer Hussain told reporters that one of the “big issues” that the Congress intends to raise is the repeal of MGNREGA, the UPA era rural employment guarantee scheme, at a time the party has launched ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’.

“Along with this, we will also raise SIR, which has created havoc and confusion among people,” he said. Other issues the party will be highlighting would be environmental issues like Aravalli, statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and urban governance issues in Indore and Ahmedabad.

Asked about Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju’s comments that issues like SIR have already been debated and that they cannot revisit it every time, Hussain said, “the arrogant government is going ahead with the SIR despite repeated strictures from the Supreme Court.”

He said more and more issues have come to the fore about the SIR after the Parliamentary debate during Winter Session and this needs to be debated.

Foreign policy related issues will also dominate Congress’ attack on the Modi government, as its MPs will be highlighting US tariff issues and “threats”  by US President Donald Trump on the Russian oil episode among other things.

The party will also focus on the economic situation, highlighting the declining value of the rupee.

The debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address and the General Discussion on the Budget are likely to see the Congress trying to corner the government on a variety of issues, which also include deaths in Indore and Ahmedabad due to urban governance issues.

Another issue that would see mention in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha would be the latest UGC guidelines to prevent atrocities against underprivileged students and the protest against it. 

The Congress will also raise the “omission” of reference to OBCs in the phase 1 questionnaire for Census.