Is government's face-off with the Opposition a well thought out strategy?

The face-off over the suspension of 12 MPs who allegedly created a ruckus during the monsoon session of Parliament could be a well thought out strategy of the government to engage the opposition on an issue which could have been a non issue. Otherwise, the government could have had to face tough question on inflation, Chinese intrusion, compensation to farmers and Covid deaths.

The government has been demanding an apology from the suspended MPs but the opposition is firm on not tendering an apology. Meanwhile the suspended MPs have been sitting on protest in Parliament; MPs of the ruling BJP too protested against them on Friday.

Also Read: How can there be reconciliation when 12 suspended MPs not ready to apologise? asks Piyush Goyal in Rajya Sabha

Leader of the House Piyush Goyal said, "The opposition leaders are making provocative statements and have refused to apologise on the serious issue even though I have offered an apology on small issues."

"When they are not willing to apologise, how can the matter be resolved?"

The statement itself is a manifestation that the government is not interested in resolving the matter despite the Chair suggesting that both sides sit and discuss the issue.

The government has been able to push the Dam safety bill in the week just ended with the opposition participating in the discussion.

In these circumstances the opposition has of late got the sense that the government's strategy is of confrontation and not resolution and then they started pushing for issues like inflation and farmers' compensation. The MPs are moving the suspension of business notice under rule 267 on a daily basis which is being rejected by the Chair.

On Friday also the Chairman rejected various notices of the opposition leaders under rule 267. One of the notices was given by Congress MP Deepender Hooda in which he demanded compensation for the families of those farmers who lost their lives during the agitation going on since last year.

On Thursday the opposition parties resorted to sloganeering after the Rajya Sabha assembled for Question Hour and later walked out of the House after they were denied permission for a discussion on inflation.

Congress MP KC Venugopal had given a suspension of business notice under rule 267 to discuss the rising prices of essential commodities, which the chair did not permit.

Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge urged the Chair, "its an important issue."

The whole week has passed but the opposition in the Upper House could not raise the issues it wanted as the entire focus was on the suspension of the MPs.

The suspended MPs are from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI, CPI-M and Shiv Sena.

They are Syed Naseer Hussain, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora and Rajmani Patel of the Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena, Elamaram Kareem of the CPI-M, Binoy Viswam of the CPI and Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri of the Trinamool.

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