Govt faces no-trust vote; BJP confident of punching holes in Oppn's efforts

The BJP has also upped the ante in its criticism of the Congress, and has succeeded in catching it on the wrong foot.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan surprised the Opposition on Wednesday, the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament, when she not only accepted their notices for a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government but also announced that the debate and voting on the motion would be held as early as Friday.

During the Budget session in March, Mahajan had pointed to disruptions in the House for not taking up a discussion on the notices of no-confidence motion, drawing criticism from opposition parties.

According to sources, this change in the government’s strategy of being amenable to facing a no-confidence motion came at the suggestion of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah.

If the Opposition believes it will use the debate to embarrass the government on a host of issues, the BJP brass thinks the Opposition has offered it a gilded opportunity, that too close to elections to three key north Indian states, and the Lok Sabha polls not far away.

The PM has already started addressing public rallies across the country. The BJP has also upped the ante in its criticism of the Congress, and has succeeded in catching it on the wrong foot by describing it a party for Muslims. Modi’s reply to the debate in the Lok Sabha on Friday, with his speech set to be telecast live, is expected to mark the launch of his campaign for the 2019 polls.

Unless the PM does the unthinkable by quitting and recommending the dissolution of the House, which will also pave the way for much speculated early Lok Sabha elections, there is little danger to his government. In the Lok Sabha, the BJP continues to command a majority of its own in the House.

Therefore, the no-confidence motion will be less about number-crunching and more about optics. The Opposition will try to embarrass the government on a host of issues – agrarian distress, atrocities on dalits, special status for Andhra Pradesh, increase in deposits of Indians in Swiss banks, lynching incidents, foreign policy, and economy.

The BJP and government strategists are confident the debate and subsequent voting on the motion will expose Opposition disunity, while the PM will punch holes in the Opposition’s efforts at building a narrative against the government on issues such as farm distress. On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs increased the minimum price sugar mills pay to sugarcane growers by Rs 20 a quintal.

The news of the Speaker accepting the notices for a no-confidence motion rattled the market on Wednesday morning. The benchmark BSE Sensex closed nearly 150 points in the red after hitting a new all-time high in the morning.

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Rahul Gandhi meets Muslim delegation, BJP calls it appeasement politics

PM Modi must be asked questions regarding his meetings with 'crony capitalists', the Congress said in its reply.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday held a meeting with Muslim intellectuals, industrialists and former bureaucrats even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pointed to the Congress party’s “politics of Muslim appeasement”.

The meeting comes a week before the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Issues related to minorities are said to have been discussed in the meeting. The Narendra Modi government is keen to push through the 'triple talaq' Bill during the upcoming session of Parliament.

Sources in the Congress said contrary to media reports, there wasn’t a single Muslim religious leader in the gathering. Congress leader Salman Khurshid and party’s minority cell chief Nadeem Javed also attended the meeting.

The Congress party rejected the BJP's criticism that the meeting with Muslim intellectuals was an example of “Muslim appeasement”. Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said her party believes in inclusive politics, and the Congress president has been meeting people from all walks of life, including farmers, diplomats, Aanganwadi workers, businesspersons and others.

“The BJP is indulging in poisonous politics whereby it is trying to make people look at any and every debate through the prism of Hindus-and-Muslims,” Chaturvedi said. She said questions should be asked to the Prime Minister for meeting and benefitting "crony capitalists".

Some of those who attended the meeting were publisher Atiya Zaidi, historian Irfan Habib, academic Abu Saleh Shariff, former telecom secretary M F Farooqui, author Rakshanda Jalil, activist Farah Naqvi, businessman and philanthropist Haroon R A Khan, lawyer Fuzail Ahmed Ayyuby and academic Ghazala Jamil.

Amir Mohammad Khan, better known as Suleiman, the erstwhile Raja of Mamudabad, also attended the meeting, as did industrialist Junaid Rehman.

According to a section of the media, poet and Hindi film scriptwriter Javed Akhtar too was supposed to be present. The Congress party said Akhtar didn’t attend the event. Media reports said Akhtar was one of the invitees, which riled leaders of Muslim religious organisations.

“Interesting that Akhtar, who proudly claims himself to be an atheist and doesn’t believe in Islam, would join the group of Muslim intellectuals who have been called by Rahul Gandhi to deliberate on ‘Muslim’ issues,” president of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat Navaid Hamid tweeted.

Story By BS