Parliament session begins, spotlight on Tharoor

The second phase of the Budget session of Parliament commenced on Thursday with all the attention turning on Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left Parties have already demanded the resignation of Tharoor for his alleged murky deals in the IPL Kochi franchise.

A number of issues have cropped up to the discomfiture of the government, which range from IPL controversy to the Dantewada massacre by Maoists. The passage of the Finance and the Women Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha will also hog the limelight.

The price rise issue is also likely to dominate the proceedings with both the BJP and the Left partiers deciding to pressurise the government on the issue.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal appealed to the opposition to support smooth running of Parliament.

"We may just have a wafer thin majority but we have a majority this is known and we can''t understand why the opposition is behaving like this stalling and destabilising the government," Bansal said.

Agencies