The BJP will bring a litany of woes to the table when the monsoon session of Parliament gets underway on 8 August. Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj said on her Twitter account that the BJP intended to discuss among other things, the Assam riots, the failure of three national power grids and the prevailing drought situation in the country.
Ethnic violence in Kokrajhar (Assam),Flood & drought situation in various states in the country,Exhorbitant increase in Fertilizer prices,
— Sushma Swaraj(@SushmaSwarajbjp) अगस्त 6, 2012
Apart from these issues the BJP intends to have the house discuss the shooting that took place in a gurdwara in the US on Sunday. It will also look to bring up the economic crisis, FDI in retail and what Swaraj has described as an “exorbitant increase in fertilizer prices”.
I will also raise the issue of missing/kidnapping of children in the country.
— Sushma Swaraj(@SushmaSwarajbjp) अगस्त 6, 2012
The issues, which were decided upon at an All Party meet to discuss the agenda of the monsoon session of Parliament, serve to further highlight what has been an extremely difficult and turbulent few months for the already beleaguered government.
Sushma Swaraj tweeted out the BJP agenda in Parliament: AFP
On the economic front, there has been abject failure to implement structural reforms, which has resulted in stubbornly high inflation, making it difficult for the central Reserve Bank of India to cut interest rates significantly despite ebbing economic growth.
This was only compounded by a massive failure of the Northern, Eastern and Northeastern power grids that brought life to a near standstill over two days. The effect of the blackout on the economy, which has been cited as the worst in the world, is not yet known.
The centre was also criticized for what was widely seen as a failure to spot growing signs of discontent between Assam’s Bodos and Muslims, and intervene in time, which ultimately caused over 50 deaths and a mass exodus of over 300,000 people from their villages to relief camps.
Since then, the government has seen a shake up in portfolios, with Chidambaram taking over as Finance Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde taking over as Home Minister and Veerappa Moily taking over as power minister.
