New Delhi: The Winter Session of Parliament begins on Monday under the shadow of SIR, with several parties uniting against it and threatening to stall proceedings in both houses if a discussion is not allowed on it.
At an all-party meeting convened by the government to seek the opposition’s support for the smooth functioning of Parliament, several parties raised the demand for a discussion on special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, together with issues of national security in the wake of the Delhi blast and air pollution in the national capital.
Issues like foreign policy, price rise, unemployment, new labour codes and federalism amid charges that governors sitting on bills passed by state legislatures and funds of opposition-ruled states being held up were also raised and would come up during the session beginning December 1.
The government, while seeking the opposition’s support, said it would continue to engage with all parties to ensure the smooth functioning of the session.
The ruling NDA is likely to come up with 14 legislations, as it goes ahead with its reforms after an emphatic victory in the Bihar Assembly polls. This is the first session after the Bihar election.
It, however, was on the back foot after it decided not to go ahead with its proposed Constitution amendment bill, envisaged to grant more powers to the President to directly legislate in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
As many as 50 leaders of 36 political parties attended the all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of the session.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president and Union Minister J P Nadda, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, and his two deputies, Arjun Ram Meghwal and L Murugan, attended it.
Rijiju said the House must be allowed to function.
“This is the winter session of Parliament, and everyone should think and conduct themselves with a cool mind,” he told reporters after the two-hour-long meeting.
“Parliament should not be stalled, and it should function smoothly. The Government will keep discussing with all parties to ensure smooth functioning of the House,” he said.
Asked if the opposition’s demand for a discussion on SIR will be accepted, Rijiju said the agenda of the session will be decided by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) this evening.
He said that though there are differences among political parties, the SIR is not the only issue, as several leaders have raised other issues too.
“But, if we decide not to disturb the house, then productivity will rise, democracy strengthened and Parliament’s respect among people enhanced,” Rijiju said.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh termed the all-party meeting “a mere formality” and this view was repeated by Samajwadi Party’s Ramgopal Yadav.
Ramesh said the 15-day session will be the shortest in Parliamentary history, as the Narendra Modi government has listed 13 Bills for passage.
His colleague Pramod Tiwari said the opposition parties feel that if no discussion is held on SIR, this means the government does not want Parliament to function.
Yadav said the opposition would not allow the session to function if there is no discussion on the SIR issue. He also claimed that SIR is flawed and booth-level officers committed suicide as they were told to delete specific votes.
CPI-M leader John Brittas said it will be the full responsibility of the government if the Parliament is disrupted.
Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee said his party was ready to cooperate in running the House, provided treasury benches also cooperate.
“The government should allow a discussion on issues such as SIR. Forty persons have lost their lives conducting SIR exercise,” Banerjee said, alleging that the objective of EC is to delete votes through SIR.
Asked if they would stall Parliament if SIR was not discussed, he said, “We hope good sense will prevail on the government and a discussion on SIR is held.”
The Winter session of Parliament will see the government’s reform push with legislations to open up the civil nuclear sector to the private sector (The Atomic Energy Bill, 2025) and set up a Higher Education Commission of India.
The Securities Markets Code Bill (SMC), 2025, also listed, proposes to consolidate provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, Depositories Act, 1996, and Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, into a rationalised single Securities Markets Code.
The Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Health Security se National Security Cess Bill, 2025, have been listed for the session.
One of the eight other draft legislations, the National Highways (Amendment) Bill, also listed, seeks to ensure faster and transparent land acquisition for national highways.
Another proposed legislation is the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which aims at tweaking the Companies Act, 2013 and LLP Act, 2008, to facilitate ease of doing business.
