NEW DELHI – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh looked to put his government’s recent corruption troubles behind him and make up for lost time as a new parliamentary session opened on Monday. Opposition parties wrecked the last session of 2010 by holding protests every day demanding a probe into the fraud-tainted sale of telecom licences in 2008 that could have cost the country up to $40 billion.
In a bid to end the deadlock, the government has reportedly agreed to hold a cross-party investigation, expected to be formally announced Tuesday, amid fierce pressure on Singh. “It is our sincere hope that this session will be peaceful and productive,” Singh told reporters as he entered parliament, adding that the budget had to be debated and passed later this month.
President Pratibha Patil in her address to parliament said the government would tackle corruption and inflation, the two hottest political issues. “My government is deeply concerned over the adverse impact of inflation on the common man and the threat it poses to growth momentum,” Patil told lawmakers. Indian wholesale inflation for January slowed marginally to 8.23 percent from 8.43 percent a month earlier, far above the central bank’s and the govt’s comfort levels.
According to the PRS Legislative Research think-tank, as well as passing a new federal budget on February 28, the government is expected to introduce 32 new bills during the session, which ends on April 21. The centrepiece is likely to be a Right To Food Act that will provide a legal guarantee to low-income families of subsidised food grains.
A host of scandals ranging from the Delhi Commonwealth Games last October to the so-called 2G telecom scam has sapped the energy of Singh’s administration and led to months of bad publicity.
