Congressman Jairam Ramesh (File photo)
NEW DELHI: in the context of farmers protests in Haryana and Punjab, Congress said Sunday that, along with like-minded opposition parties, it will oppose three ordinances on agriculture and one related to banking regulation in the parliament session during the monsoon, as well as raising issues of border tensions with China and the state of the Indian economy.
Congress argued that the abolition of the CMPA – agri-mandis – will benefit agricultural traders rather than farmers and that the government is trying to circumvent its commitment to purchase food grains at its minimum support prices from Food Corporation of India .
The party’s opposition to the Banking Regulation Law, said senior deputy Jairam Ramesh, is because it is against cooperative, “anti-state and anti-popular” federalism. He also said cooperative banks should be regulated by the states, not by the Center. Congress said it opposes the ordinance as all key financial intermediaries will be under the Center and will lead to greater centralization, especially as it empowers the Center to change the financial and membership structure of cooperative banks. Ramesh also said that the ordinance confers more regulatory responsibilities on the RBI, and with central banks’ mixed performance on that front, there is no justification for doing so.
“While it is true that we do not have the numbers in Lok Sabha, we will do our best to ensure that these bills are referred to the committee for closer scrutiny, ”Ramesh said.
The prevailing situation in LAC and the state of the economy will also make the government and opposition parties go head-to-head.
Ramesh claimed that India’s position vis-à-vis China was “weakened” due to PM Modi’s own statement. “We need a discussion on China. Parliament is a place for debate and discussion, not for running away, ”he said.
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