The winter session of parliament beginning from Monday, promises to be extremely exciting since there will be no dearth of solid issues in hand for the opposition to launch assaults on the ruling NDA. These issues which are of enormous national importance have been hitting headlines for past few weeks and it will be without any doubt that they are going to culminate into flashpoints between the occupiers of treasury and opposition benches. It will also be interesting to notice how much the roar gets louder as the opposition is now richer by 18 more voices with the Shiv Sena snapping three-decade old tie with BJP after the great Maharashtra ‘disagreement’. Various predetermined agendas for this session including the much contentious CAB had been spelt out by the rulers and it is sure that they will go all-out in the process. In such context, there is also a growing expectation that opposition  must rise to the occasion with oratory finesse and unputdownable logic   to  counter the seemingly unstoppable ruling   dispensation. And it is truly only through this they can   neutralise their great numerical disadvantage and keep the hallowed Indian parliamentary democracy agog.

Among all issues that will feature in this session, the great economic slowdown, post-realignment picture of   J&K and passage of CAB will be the ones where most of the focus will converge. Coming to this highly disagreed piece of would-be legislation, it must be said that despite out-and-out disagreements from  various quarters particularly by a united Northeast, it is going to be introduced.   Reading between the lines, it becomes clear that CAB will bring very little effect for the mainland and Northeast will be its actual ‘heartland’ for execution. This is a fact which should have little room for any debate and  it’s  perhaps one of the fundamental   reasons for   Northeast’s ‘ No CAB’   unanimity. Although, assurances have flown in for incorporation of ‘protective shields’, as of now, it’s full of anxiety till it’s actual tabling.  Economic slowdown has been a front ranking election issue and it has only widened itself in public domain as more and more distressing figures emerged over the last few months. From Moody’s   latest   gloomy forecast about India’s economic growth to a more   latest ‘leaked’   National Statistical Office (NSO) consumer expenditure survey  which says that   average amount of money spent by a person in a month fell from Rs 1,501 in 2011-12 to Rs 1,446 in 2017-18, arsenal for the opposition must have grown further.  

In any case, a productive session is something that will be wished for. But it must not come at the cost of strangulating the accepted and tested ethical aspects of functioning of a parliamentary sitting, which sadly was a feature of the preceding monsoon tenure.