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Rejuvenated Congress all set for Parliament session
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December 09, 2008 14:47 IST

Parliament will resume on Wednesday for a brief sitting in which the government is expected to seek a political consensus on initiatives to fight terrorism.

The ten-day sitting, the third part of the session that began on July 21 for securing the trust vote, is being held at a time when the assembly election results have comes as a booster for the Congress, which heads the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre.

The ruling combine could attempt to embarrass the Bharatiya Janata Party over its terror plank, which failed to have much impact in the assembly polls.

The government could come out with measures to put in place the Federal Investigation Agency as also a legal framework to counter terrorism.

The highlight of the ten-day sitting could be the execution of the FIA proposal that may require the opposition backing  in view of its implications on a subject of law and order, which is a state subject under the Constitution.

The new Home Minister P Chidambaram has already met Leader of the Opposition and BJP leader L K Advani [Images] in this regard.

Congress spokesman and Minister of State for Home Shakeel Ahmed hoped the FIA would be formalised during the session.

Noting that the government is accountable to the people on the issue of security, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that his party would ask for a detailed report on the preparedness of the government.

Samajwadi Party's Mohan Singh said the session is being held at a time when the BJP has received a setback even after raising the terror issue.

The session is also significant as it has come at a time when the global recession started having its impact on the Indian economy and the government is expected to tell the Parliament on the measures taken by it to tackle it.

The session is expected to witness discussions on issues with the slew of measures including special stimulus package coming in for scrutiny.  The government is expected to come up with a fresh batch of supplementary demands for grants for approval of its plans to incur an additional spending of Rs 20,000 crore as part of the package.

Both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are expected to be adjourned on the opening day as a mark of respect to the late former prime minister V P Singh [Images], who died recently.

With Lok Sabha polls to be held early next year, a section of the political class believes that the session would be the last one before the polls but there is no official word.

Observers say that there could be one more session when the government could come to seek a vote on account for a few months since the Lok Sabha elections are due in April-May.

The new government, coming to power after the elections, may present a full-fledged budget later.


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