An Embarrassment For Government as an Opposition Amendment is Cleared
NEW DELHI : The government’s minority status in the Rajya Sabha was driven home by the opposition as it used its numbers to amend a motion of thanks on the President’s speech.
The Left’s Sitaram Yechury moved the amendment that said the president’s address did not mention any action taken against corruption or black money. The change was cleared by a majority in the upper house, with the government missing many of its own members and allies.
The government’s motion of thanks will now go to President Pranab Mukherjee with the addition: “…regret that there is no mention in the address about the failure of the government to curb the high level corruption and to bring back black money.”
This is the fourth time that a government’s motion of thanks has been amended; it previously happened in 1980, 1989 and 2001 and always in the Rajya Sabha.”This government is very arrogant. They should know…you can bulldoze us in the Lok Sabha, but not the Rajya Sabha,” Congress member Madhusudan Mistry told.
The opposition’s minor victory came shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended his government’s policies while replying to the debate on the speech that the President made at the start of the budget session.
PM Modi made a pitch for his government’s controversial land acquisition bill, which the opposition says is inimical to farmers’ interests.”The law will stay. We will remove the shortcomings. I urge you to help us and together we can take India’s development ahead,” the prime minister said, adding that the opposition should not make the land bill an issue of politics or arrogance.
