After Shibu Soren, the Bharatiya Janata Party is loading its guns to train on Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Taslimuddin during the monsoon session of Parliament starting Monday.
The minister from Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal is in a spot of bother after a non-bailable warrant was issued against him by a court in Araria in Bihar. A case is registered against the minister at Araria police station under certain sections of IPC, Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act.
The seriousness with which the minister is taking the issue can be gauged by the fact that he has approached the Delhi high court for transit bail.
The BJP is also planning to rake up the issue of a criminal case against a minister from Andhra Pradesh. Addressing the press in Delhi on Friday, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said, "We expect the prime minister to either accept it or deny it. We hope it would place the facts before the Parliament."
Citing the arrest of Delhi corporators in graft cases as an indication of 'criminalisation' of Council of Ministers percolating down to the Congress party, Jaitley said, "It raises a question mark and we will raise it in Parliament."
The party also plans to raise a number of issues ranging from drought and floods to toning up the public distribution system.
With the Parliamentary Committees working overtime to complete the scrutiny of the Demands for Grants of ministries, it will be a packed schedule in Parliament in the coming three weeks.
As floods and drought continue to affect large parts of the country, it is slated to be discussed on Monday.
The details of the business to be taken up was discussed at a meeting between Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had with Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in Delhi on Friday morning.
The deadlock over the boycott of Parliamentary Committees by Opposition was broken following talks between Chatterjee and Leader of Opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani and subsequent meeting that Advani had with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet colleagues where a formula was worked out.
On Tuesday, the Lok Sabha would discuss problems faced by the jute industry, while on the following day it would take up for debate the power situation in the country.
The Lok Sabha would take up on August 19 the Public Distribution System.
The BJP also plans to put the government on the mat on issues including inflation, EPF rate cut and changes in education policy.
Jaitley described the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Ggovernment as 'one of the most uncaring Governments in recent time'. "Uncaring by inflicting such an inflationary trend on economy, uncaring to drought and flood in some areas and uncaring on the threat of terrorism," he said.
Asked whether the party was planning to stall proceedings as it did last time, he said, "We want the Parliament to function smoothly. But there should be space for us to raise issues of concern including economy, terrorism, WTO and tainted ministers along with government business."
