Note ban to rock Parliament

​New Delhi: The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes is all set to rock the winter session of Parliament set to start from Wednesday. The one-month-long 22-sittings session is listed to deal with 10 Bills for consideration and passing.

PRS Legislative Research which keeps a track of the Parliamentary work mentions that nine new Bills are expected to be introduced to be taken for a passage later.

Thanks to the demonetisation impact, several Opposition parties have now come together to protest the 'harassment of common man’ by the move.

Dubbing the move as economic emergency and civil war on citizens and surgical strikes on common man, each of these parties have picked up the cudgels "on behalf of the poor and the downtrodden."

The broader anti-demonetisation coalition plans to stall Parliament as it presumes that this time around Prime Minister Narendra Modi has erred and erred grievously.

The leaders of all those who are opposing the move vehemently "because common man is suffering" feel that the nightmare has just begun and the move could lead to a collapse of the economy. The optics being played out around the present could be misleading them.

However, the Union government is firm and the reiteration of the Prime Minister and his emotional pitch in seeking 50 days time to bring the economy back on rails only indicate that the Treasury benches will be no mood to be cowed down by the Opposition in Parliament.

Backed by several moves to ease the pressure on the ordinary people who are storming the banks and the ATMs giving the nation a sobriquet - queuing nation - it is all the more convinced that demonetisation may give temporary pain.

It is all for the long term larger good of the nation, it has come to conclude. Whatever may be the claims of the political parties, it is a common knowledge that the demonetisation sounds death knell to their aspirations in the upcoming elections.

It is universally known that illegal money flows try to dictate the course of the election outcomes in every sense and there is little that several of these major players in the electoral arena could do with the stacked up legal tenders turning illegal now.

Funding of the elections is essentially done with the "donations and collections" which is never accounted for.This war of words being played out in the back drop of Assembly elections to UP, Punjab, Goa and Manipur next year could only lead to a raucous session marked by strident speeches and non-productive legislative business.

A couple of issues like the OROP and the politicisation of surgical strikes across the border could also throw the business of the House out of gear to some extent.

It is to be seen whether the government's plans to see a smooth passage of the GST is likely to be affected as the Congress has indicated that it would oppose the slabs system contemplated by the government.

The GST rollout needs Central Goods and Services Tax Bill to facilitate levy of tax on intra-state supply of goods or services, Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill to facilitate levy of tax on inter-state supply of goods or services and the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation for Loss of Revenue) Bill to facilitate payment of compensation to states for loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of GST.

The Bills listed for consideration and passage include Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and The Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015.

The bills to be introduced for passage include Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 and Divorce (Amendment) Bill, 2016

The Congress and Trinamool Congress have given notices for suspension of business in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the opening day of the winter session to discuss demonetisation.

The session is slated to conclude on December 16.