Parliament Budget Session: Protests Point To Opposition Strategy

The President of India's pre-budget address to the joint session of Parliament on Friday, was briefly punctuated with cries of 'shame' from protesting members of the opposition parties. Many opposition members also wore black bands to Parliament. By and large, the decorum of the presidential address was not in any way impacted during such brief interruptions of his speech.

The President of India referred to the NDA government's achievements over the course of the last one year. He mentioned several bills including the Triple Talaq bill, the abrogation of Article 370 and passage of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by both houses of Parliament. It was when President Kovind mentioned CAA that members of opposition shouted shame and interrupted his address.

Speaking to the media, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has indicated that the government is open to a debate on all issues. Meanwhile, the opposition appears to be gearing up to corner the NDA government on CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC), National Population Register (NPR), incidents of violence in UP, JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia University.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for the year 2020-21 on Saturday and while the opposition may not bring up other issues during the course of the presentation of the budget, in the days to follow it appears to be determined to focus on CAA and related issues.