While the Opposition gets ready to take on the government over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls during the Winter Session of Parliament, which begins on December 1, the government is planning to hold a day-long discussion on “Vande Mataram”.
“The government wants to have a discussion on Vande Mataram at the beginning of the session itself. It will talk to the Opposition about it at the all-party meeting on Sunday,” said a government source, adding that the proposed discussion in the House will be part of the year-long commemoration of 150 years of the song.
At an event in the Capital on November 7 to kick off the year-long commemoration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Congress, alleging that “important stanzas” of the national song were dropped in 1937. This “sowed the seeds of Partition” and that “divisive mindset” was still a challenge for the country, he said. In response, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said his party was the “proud flagbearer” of Vande Mataram, which “awakened the collective soul of the nation” and became the rallying cry for freedom. The BJP and its ideological parent RSS, instead, avoided the national song, Kharge said.
The legislative business for the Winter Session is set to be discussed at the meeting on Sunday. The members of the Opposition INDIA bloc are expected to meet afterwards to discuss their agenda for the session, which is scheduled to run till December 19.
However, the proceedings in the House may get derailed if the Opposition pushes for a discussion on SIR. The month-long Monsoon Session witnessed abrupt adjournments and disruptions over the Opposition’s demands for a discussion on the SIR exercise in Bihar. At the time, the government rejected the demand saying that matters pending before the judiciary cannot be discussed on the floor of the House. The government also cited a 1988 ruling by Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar that under the existing constitutional provisions, the House cannot comment on the Election Commission’s actions.
At the Idea Exchange session of The Indian Express on Thursday, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju said, “The discussion about any constitutional authority which is clearly an autonomous body (the EC) is not advisable, number one, because the government cannot speak on behalf of the authority. Suppose you want to discuss the Supreme Court’s functioning… it is different from judicial reforms… So that is why, when there are matters sub-judice or matters related to the Election Commission and courts, the stand has been that since they are autonomous constitutional bodies, they cannot be discussed on the floor of the House until and unless it is related to some reforms, which the government can always bring.”
“If the matter (SIR) is to be discussed, the subject has to be widened, (like) a reform … We can think about it,” the minister said.
The Congress’s Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore, said he hoped that the government would allow discussions on subjects that the Opposition wants to raise. “We hope the government allows discussions on the issues that the Opposition raises. At the all-party meeting, the Opposition leaders will list genuine demands. We want Parliament to function not just in the government way, but in both the government and opposition ways.”
Tagore said the Opposition wants to have discussions on “SIR rollout, unfair Election Commission, rising pollution in the National Capital, flood relief for states that have faced natural calamities, and unemployment.”
Heavy reform agenda
At the Idea Exchange session, Rijiju said the government had a “heavy reform agenda for the Winter Session”.
Buoyed by the NDA’s victory in Bihar, the BJP and its allies are expected to push for reforms in sectors such as atomic energy, higher education, national highways, and insurance. While the Higher Education Commission of India Bill, 2025, is for constituting a Higher Education Commission of India that will coordinate and determine standards in higher education, research, and scientific and technical institutions, the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill is meant to deepen the penetration of the insurance sector, accelerate growth, and enhance the ease of doing business. The amendment of the National Highways Bill looks to facilitate faster and transparent land acquisition for national highways, while the proposed changes in the Atomic Energy Bill seek to allow non-government entities to operate atomic power plants alongside the Nuclear Power Corporation of India.
Following a strong pushback from the Opposition and amid concerns in the Punjab BJP, the government has announced it won’t take up the Constitution (131st Amendment Bill) 2025 that proposed to include Chandigarh under Article 240 of the Constitution. That would have paved the way for Chandigarh to get an independent administrator, like the Lieutenant-Governor in many other Union Territories, and bring it under the direct control of the Centre.