Parliament may finally see a debate on demonetisation

The NDA government on Monday said it was ready for a debate on any issue including demonetisation as the Winter Session of Parliament was set to culminate on December 16. The Congress though did not officially comment on the debate issue on Monday but reiterated its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the entire demonetisation exercise with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi also explaining “the end result”.

Addressing the media on Monday, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said “The entire demonetisation exercise has turned out to become an unmitigated disaster. There should be a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the entire exercise.”

Earlier, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu appealed to the Opposition parties to come to the discussion table saying: "We are ready for a debate and discussion in Parliament. We hope that the last two or three days will be useful.” Parliament will reopen on Wednesday, after the Eid-e-Milad-un Nabi holiday.

The Winter Session has seen both Houses of the Parliament witness heated exchanges between the government and the Opposition over the way a debate should take place on the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8. The Opposition parties had earlier demanded a discussion under a rule that entailed voting in the Lok Sabha, which the NDA government was unwilling to concede.

The Prime Minister last week had caused a stir by claiming that since he was not being allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha, he was forced to address 'Jan Sabhas'. Parliament also witnessed an unusual outburst by senior BJP leader LK Advani, who seemed to accuse Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and the ruling party on treasury benches of not allowing the House to run. All eyes are therefore set on how the Speaker and the two sides behave in the House on Wednesday.

The Congress had always wanted a debate and Vice President Rahul Gandhi had wanted to speak on the demonetisation issue last Friday itself. However, the debate had not taken place then as the government had demanded the Congress first apologise for stalling Parliament for 16 days, which led to an uproar and adjournment of the House.

A compromise likely?

According to sources, “some kind of a compromise” was likely to emerge between the NDA government and the Opposition parties. “The government desperately needs to pass the three Goods and Services Tax (GST) related Bills passed in this session,” they say. Though the GST may miss the April deadline due to the states not agreeing to many aspects of its implementation, nevertheless, the Centre wouldn’t want the Bills to be postponed to the Budget Session.

With just few days remaining of the Winter Session, therefore, there is the likelihood of the Opposition parties and the NDA government getting on to the same page on holding a debate. This may then see both PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi speak on the demonetisation issue.

Chavan said all the claims of the PM in his November 8 speech such as fight against Pakistan-backed terrorism and eliminating counterfeit notes; fight against black money and corruption had all come a cropper. Worse, it now appeared that the demonetisation exercise was not properly planned and without a complete roadmap ready. “The Government’s inept design of the process has resulted in this complete fiasco. Who is responsible for this fiasco? Accountability has to be fixed,” said Chavan. Hopefully, a debate in Parliament will answer this and other issues related to demonetisation.

With PTI inputs.