Stage set for stormy session of Parliament with Operation Sindoor and SIR likely to dominate

New Delhi: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar, the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor are likely to dominate business in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, which is expected to be a stormy one.

The government has listed several bills, including one to tighten norms around doping in sports, and another that will protect geological sites.

Meanwhile, the Opposition is set to raise concerns about a series of tweets by US President Donald Trump announcing a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, as well as issues of unemployment and infrastructure breakdown, in addition to SIR. 

An all-party meeting is set for July 20, which will be chaired by union defence minister Rajnath Singh.

And as per the norm, the Business Advisory Committee will convene on July 21, the first day of the Session. The Session will go on till August 21.

The government has listed eight bills as part of its legislative agenda, hoping to have a productive Session. While the government seeks to introduce and pass these eight bills, in addition to passing eight more pending bills, the Opposition is readying itself to question the government on some burning issues. 

Congress Lok Sabha MP and whip Manickam Tagore said that a key issue on which the Opposition will seek answers is the Pahalgam terror. “We will take up the Pahalgam terror and seek responsibility for the heinous act, and ask whose failure led to this. Apart from that, the government needs to clarify US President Donal Trump’s series of tweets on the ceasefire. The statehood issue of Jammu and Kashmir, too, will be taken up,” Tagore said, adding that unemployment and infrastructure breakdown are other key issues they will raise. 

On Wednesday, as a precursor to the stormy session that lay ahead, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the statehood of J&K stating that this is the first case of a state being downgraded to a Union Territory. 

BJP’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha and senior leader of its Bihar unit Sanjay Jaiswal asked why does the Opposition want to discuss the SIR exercise in the Parliament when the Election Commission is carrying it out.

“Why do they want to raise this issue in Parliament? When LoP Rahul Gandhi went to Patna to raise this issue, he sat at the gates of the EC and even when the officials waited for him, he sat in his vehicle and went to the airport – over an hour and a half ahead of his flight. He could have met EC officials with Tejaswi Yadav and sought answers there; they are not serious about it,” Jaiswal said.   

He said that the government is willing to listen and discuss issues that the Opposition raises. “At the BAC meetings, they agree to hold discussions, and then go ahead and boycott,” he added. 

Tagore said that the Opposition will seek answers on SIR to the government, simply because it is responding when the Opposition questions the Commission. 

Among them, the Income Tax Bill proposes to levy income tax on earnings for a year during the same year, the Geoheritage Sites and Geo-relics (Preservation and Maintenance) Bill seeks to protect and regulate relics and geological sites, and the National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill which seeks to tweak the anti-doping provisions to bring it at par with global norms.