Budget session: BJP to discuss inflation, Karnataka polls

With the Parliament scheduled to start its session on February 25, the BJP has identified a string of issues — from Karnataka polls to internal security to minority appeasement — for discussions. “We have given 75 notices for discussions under rules 184 and 193 in the Lok Sabha alone, but even without them, the Presidential address and the railway and the Union budgets will offer us enough opportunities to express our views on key issue,” said BJP spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra. He added that the Government is trying to extend President’s rule in Karnataka, as the buzz is that the BJP will sweep an early election. “We want elections by the end of May and we will press for it in both the Houses,” he said.

The party expects populist Union and Railway budgets and plans to concentrate on price-rise during the discussions. As far as foreign policy is concerned, the BJP will highlight the “total failure” of the UPA regime in protecting India’s long-term strategic interests. The party said that at a time when the legitimacy of Nepal’s interim parliament for taking decisions is under question, India ought to have tried to ensure that vital issues are addressed only by the new parliament.