The winter session of the Parliament will commence from Monday and will end on December 13th. It will see a total of 20 sittings.
Amidst this, 35 legislations will be considered by both houses of the Parliament. The Opposition will be hoping to corner the government and demand answers on certain key issues that have gripped the nation.
Amongst the important legislations that will be considered are the following:
1. Citizenship (Amendment) Act- It seeks to change the definition of an ‘illegal immigrant’. This will enable members from six communities, i.e. Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to apply for citizenship. It also reduces the number of years before which members of these communities from these nations can apply for citizenship. Presently, individuals wanting to be granted citizenship have to be a resident of India for a period of 11 years. This amendment seeks to reduce this to six years for the members of the communities mentioned above emigrating from the mentioned nations.
This bill has lapsed after the dissolution of the previous Lok Sabha. It shall be re-introduced during this session.
The opposition parties and residents from North-East India have voiced their opposition to this Bill.
2. The Personal Data Protection Bill- This bill seeks to regulate the collection, processing, usage and storage of personal data of Indian citizens. Very many industries have been hesitant to invest in India, in the absence of a data regulation law. This is expected to facilitate such an investment. This law has been framed in accordance with the Justice Sri Krishna committee report.
3. Amendments to the Income Tax Act and the Finance Act, 2019– This will be an ordinance issued under Article 123 of the Indian constitution that will have to be cleared by both houses of the Parliament. This has reduced the corporate tax for new and domestic manufacturing companies.
On 26th November, considered to be the National Law day (the day the Indian constitution was adopted on November 26th, 1949), PM Narendra Modi will be addressing a joint session of the Parliament.
The opposition hopes to corner the government and demand answers on a variety of issues related to the state of Indian Economy, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the Punjab and Maharashtra cooperative bank crisis and the controversy over whats app snooping. Many parliamentary standing committees are already considering these matters before them.
The Standing committee on Urban Development has already rapped the government on the knuckles over its handing of the air pollution crisis in the Delhi-NCR region.
In a democracy, the executive is responsible to the legislature for its acts and omissions. The sessions of Parliament will provide the latter, an opportunity to hold the former responsible.