The Hindu : Karnataka News : Budget today; Government ready to take on Opposition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Budget today; Government ready to take on Opposition

By S. Rajendran

BANGALORE, JULY 18. The Common Minimum Programme unveiled by the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) combine on Saturday and the strong likelihood of the presentation of a pro-people Budget on the opening day of the 10-day Budget session to start from Monday are expected to be the trump cards of the N. Dharam Singh-led coalition Government to defeat the strategy of a formidable Opposition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party to sully its (Government) image in the House.

Sources in the Government told The Hindu here that the Congress and the Janata Dal(S) would effectively combine to keep the BJP under check in the two Houses. Although there was no precedence of combined legislature party meetings in States where coalition Governments were in place, efforts were afoot to at least ensure that the senior leaders of the two parties met regularly and worked out a strategy on an issue-to-issue basis.

While the BJP aims at drawing the attention of the people to the "skeletons in the cupboard" of the Congress and also portray the Janata Dal(S) as having entered into an "unholy alliance" merely to form a government, the Congress and the Janata Dal(S) have decided to take the "wind out of the sails" of the BJP by striking aggressive postures.

For instance, it was mentioned that if the BJP continued to harp on the rice scam, the effort would be to put across to it the failure of the National Democratic Alliance Government to keep a tab on the utilisation of grants in cash and kind made over to then State Government in tackling drought.

The session is expected to be stormy barring, of course, the first day when the Budget will be presented. The BJP is working at bringing adjournment motions on several subjects and its alliance partner, the Janata Dal (United), is expected to take the coalition Government to task.

The brief first session of the 12th Assembly, which was gone through in mid-June, was also stormy with the BJP attempting to corner the Government on the rice scam.

The Government stood its ground by refusing to yield to the demand for an inquiry by a joint select committee irrespective of the two days of dharna in the House.

The BJP, it is said, will again take up the rice scam issue and this time round is likely to seek an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, had himself suggested that a CBI inquiry would be broad-based rather than the one conducted by a legislature committee.

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