Deadlock in Parliament over price rise ends

The week-long logjam in Parliament over the issue of spiralling prices ended today with both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha resuming their normal functioning.

The stalemate ended after the opposition gave up its demand for a motion to discuss the issue under rules that entail voting and agreed for passing a resolution after discussion in both Houses.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said the House will discuss the issue tomorrow.

In the Rajya Sabha the discussion will take place on Wednesday.

The consensus was reached at an all—party breakfast meeting called by Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee.

As soon as the Lok Sabha assembled for the day, the Speaker said she had been informed that the treasury benches and the opposition had reached an agreement.

She expressed hope that the House would start functioning without any disruption.

The issue of price rise had rocked Parliament during almost the entire first week of the Monsoon Session with an angry opposition seeking to censure the government in both the Houses.

The deadlock had remained unresolved even after the Lok Sabha Speaker rejected notices of adjournment motion on the issue.

The opposition has been blaming the government for failure to control rise in prices, particularly of food items and petroleum products. The general inflation has remained in the double digit while prices of food items were increasing by 9.6 per cent.

Resolution

There were reservations from the opposition on the wording of the resolution which was initiated by the government.

“They were not using the word ‘common man’, so we objected. Now the words ‘adverse impact of inflationary pressure on the common man’ have been included in the resolution,” Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said.

However, the government did not concede the opposition demand of including “price rise” in the resolution, arguing that the issue was a continuing phenomenon which could not be stopped and instead the term “inflationary pressure” should be used.

With the opposition and the government agreeing on the discussions, both the Houses of Parliament were expected to function normally. The two Houses had remained paralysed since the session began last Monday with the Opposition clashing with the treasury benches on the issue.

“This is a recognition of the protests launched by the opposition parties,” Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta said.

Those who attended the meeting included Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her counterpart in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Janata Dal (United) President and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh and Ramgopal Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party leader SC Mishra, All Indian Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M. Thambidurai, CPI (M)’s Sitaram Yechury and Basudev Achariya and CPI’s Gurdas Dasgupta.

From the UPA side, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, DMK leader T..R. Balu, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, his deputy Prithviraj Chavan and V. Narayansamy attended the meeting.

During the hour—long meeting, the opposition pressed hard for changing the wordings of the resolution.

“Now there is a resolution with consensus. Pranab Mukherjee read out the resolution. Opposition had certain disagreements. Government accepted those demands,” SP chief Mulayam Singh said after the meeting.