Minister Forced to Resign, Delimitation Plan Foiled: Youth Protests, Opposition Push Modi-Shah on Back Foot |
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New Delhi: About a month ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was looking to enter the monsoon session of parliament buoyed by its first triumph in the West Bengal assembly elections, and a series of defections in the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). This was meant to aid its plans to re-introduce the delimitation Bill to overcome the failure of its women’s reservation-linked Lok Sabha expansion plan that it had suffered at the hands of a united opposition in the special session in April.
But by the time the session ended on Thursday (August 13), the Modi government not only failed to bring any of its contentious bills, instead, it had been forced for the first time to oust one of its ministers under youth-led public protests, while the opposition managed to keep it on the backfoot with pressure demanding answers for the police action on protesters.
The result: both, the home minister and the prime minister remained absent in parliament throughout the session, without a word delivered in either House.
Shah’s uncanny silence in the last month, barring a brief statement to the media on Wednesday, stands in stark contrast to his public facing personality as Modi’s number two in the government and the prime mover and defender of government business.
The final day of monsoon session
The political optics on August 13 was diametrically opposite to what the government would have hoped for at the start of the session. Missing from parliament through the session amid calls from the opposition to deliver a statement on the police action on protesters, the day began with Modi and Shah making their first and only appearance in the session since July 20. The two were seen seated in the Lok Sabha as proceedings began, the national song was played in full, and the House was adjourned sine die without the top two in the government making any statement, while wholly staying absent from the Rajya Sabha.
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