Lok Sabha to take up debate on terrorism on Thursday

Amid probable issues of terrorism and inflation expected to dominate Parliamentary sessions, a ten-day brief session in the third part of the monsoon session that began on July 21 for securing the trust vote, commenced here on Wednesday.

Few hours after a meeting of leaders of political parties called by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, ahead of the session, to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament, both Houses of Parliament adjourned till Thursday after observing a minute silence as a mark of respect to the former prime minister V P Singh, who died on Nov 27.

It was decided in the meeting that Home Minister P Chidambaram would make a statement on terrorism in Lok Sabha on Thursday. And soon after that the House would take up a discussion, but there would be no voting at the end of the debate.

Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, who is also in-charge of Parliamentary Affairs, said the government was in favour of structured debate on the issue of terrorism and wanted to proceed with consensus of all parties.

The session could also see the setting up of the Federal Investigation Agency along with a legal framework to counter terrorism as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had apparently said after Mumbai terror strikes.

Earlier in the day, both houses condemned the Mumbai terror strikes as the most horrendous and sought strict action against the perpetrators of this heinous crime and insisted on an all out effort to prevent recurrence of such events.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Chairman Hamid Ansari condemned the Mumbai terror strikes as well as several other terror attacks in Assam in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively.

“The House calls for strict action and all out efforts to prevent recurrence of such cowardly and brutal attacks,” the Speaker said.

The session has begun at a time when the Congress is in upbeat mood with winning three State Assembly elections in contrast to BJP’s two, and has nuclear deal in its bag. Whereas the BJP would like to corner the Congress on terrorism and price rise, the Congress would counter the BJP’s attack by taking up issues like attack on Christians in BJP ruled Karnataka and BJP-BJD ruled Orissa.