Focus on flagship schemes; Anant Geete leads Sena team
Ahead of the crucial winter session of Parliament — likely to commence in the last week of November — Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the NDA’s close to 400-odd MPs on Sunday evening that he not only expected them to take his government’s “pro-poor” initiatives pro-actively to the people, as these were not the exclusive property of some political parties/governments (a snide reference to the predecessor UPA dispensation), but to conduct themselves in a “righteous” manner, never indulging in any activity that may bring them into disrepute.
Mr Modi’s pointed message to his flock was delivered over high tea — attended, interestingly enough by the entire Shiv Sena contingent — on the lawns of 7 Race Course Road on Sunday: it was the first such gathering of NDA MPs, but Mr Modi promised that this would become a regular feature.
Union parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu, playing master of ceremonies, urged MPs to contribute to enhancing the quality of debates in Parliament, explained the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’s objectives, and announced that Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary on October 31 will be celebrated annually as Ekta Diwas, when all government servants will take the unity pledge. BJP veteran LK Advani congratulated party president Amit Shah for the election victories in Maharashtra and Haryana, while presenting him with a shawl.
For two hours, from 4 to 6 pm, the focus was on the importance of all ministers and MPs being fully briefed on key programmes so that, as a government source put it, “elected representatives are empowered to become effective political communicators” both inside and outside Parliament.
If Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley briefed MPs on the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana, the recent ordinance on coal, and on the significance of the new gas pricing that the government announced on October 18; Union Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari on the Adarsh Gram Yojana; Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on the new health initiatives; and Union Labour minister Narendra Tomar on the Minimum Pension Scheme and labour initiatives.
The other key feature of the evening was the fact that the Sena MPs, led by union minister Anant Geete, attended the Diwali Milan even as talks are on to form a BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra: union home minister Rajnath Singh and senior leader JP Nadda will be in Mumbai this week for talks on the subject and a new government in Maharashtra is likely to be sworn in by month end.
With the BJP-led NDA getting ready for the winter session of Parliament — dates for which will be decided on Monday when the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs meets — Sunday evening set the tone for what would be expected of the ruling coalition MPs.
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