A bill to give more powers to the central government over services in Delhi was introduced in the Lok Sabha. The bill will replace an ordinance issued in this regard. However, some changes have also been made in the Bill as compared to the Ordinance.Opposition parties protested questioning the government’s right to introduce the bill, but Union Home Minister Amit Shah made it clear that the bill is constitutional and in accordance with the rules and is being opposed only for political reasons.Home Minister Nityanand Rai introduced the billThe bill was introduced by Home Minister Nityanand Rai on behalf of Amit Shah amid uproar and sloganeering in the Lok Sabha. Leader of Congress in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury termed the bill as against the federal structure. He said the bill is going to dig the grave of cooperative federalism.Several opposition parties opposed the billWhile opposing the bill, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi took a sharp dig at the opposition parties, including the Congress. Owaisi said the opposition parties, which had announced that Parliament would not function until Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on the Manipur violence, were discussing the bill in Parliament today.The Congress may have opposed the bill, but unlike other parties, it has not issued a whip for it. The Congress has eight MPs in the Lok Sabha from Punjab, who have openly opposed going with Kejriwal in support of the bill. It will be interesting to see what their stand is during voting in the Lok Sabha after the Congress high command’s decision to support the bill.BJD and YSR Congress support the billAt the same time, the BJD came openly in support of the bill. BJD MP Pinaki Mishra, while reading out the verdict of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, said that it clearly mentions the right of the Central Government to make laws with regard to Delhi. That is why it is wrong to question the authority of the central government to introduce this bill. The YSR Congress has already announced its support to the bill.The bill will be easily passed in the Lok Sabha.With the BJP alone having 301 MPs and the NDA together having over 330 MPs, the Bill is set to be passed easily in the Lok Sabha. Now after the YSR Congress, there will be no difficulty in getting it passed in the Rajya Sabha after the BJD gets support. Both the parties have nine MPs each in the Rajya Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha, Arvind Kejriwal had sought the cooperation of all opposition parties to stop this bill.But a total of 101 MPs of opposition INDIA parties are in the Rajya Sabha. With the merger of seven more Independent MPs Kapil Sibal, the number of MPs opposing the bill reaches only 109. With the addition of 111 MPs of the NDA and 18 MPs of the BJD and YSR Congress, the number of MPs supporting the bill will be 129.
