New Delhi: Elections keep happening but Parliament’s Budget session is very important as it draws a blueprint for the entire year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday and urged all MPs to make it fruitful by holding discussions with an “open mind”.
Addressing the media ahead of the start of the session, Modi said it is true that because of frequent elections, sessions and discussions get affected but elections have their own place and will keep happening, and hoped that there are discussions that are free, thoughtful, full of human sensitivities, and with good intent.
There are many opportunities for India in today’s global situation and asserted that the country’s economic progress, vaccination program against COVID-19, and India-made vaccines have built trust for it across the globe, he said.
In this budget session also the “open-minded” discussions of parliamentarians can become an important opportunity for making a global impact, the Prime Minister said.
“I hope that all MPs and all political parties will definitely help in taking the country on the path of progress and in accelerating it by having quality discussions with an open mind,” he said.
Modi further said,”…I urge all members of Parliament that elections have their own place and will keep happening… this budget session in a way draws a blueprint for an entire year and therefore, it is very important.”
The more fruitful we make this session with full commitment, there will be a big opportunity in the coming year to take the country to new economic heights, he said.
The session comes ahead of assembly polls from February 10 to March 7 in five states — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa. The counting of votes would take place on March 10.
The session of Parliament is likely to be stormy with opposition parties all geared up to raise farmers’ issues and the border row with China.
The opposition is also preparing to unitedly take on the government on the Pegasus snooping row after the New York Times claimed that India purchased the snooping spyware as part of a defence deal with Israel in 2017.
Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has already written to Speaker Om Birla for moving a privilege motion against the government and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for “misleading” the House, as the government had denied the charges of “spying” in a statement in Parliament last year.