The current Parliamentary Budget Session has been extended to February 10 by one day. President Droupadi Murmu’s speech to the joint sitting of the two Houses on January 31 kicked off the final session before the Lok Sabha elections, which are scheduled for April or May of this year. Originally, it was scheduled to end on February 9.
While announcing the extension in the Lower House, Speaker Om Birla said, “Honorable Members, Honorable Minister of Parliamentary Affairs has proposed that the 15th session of the 17th Lok Sabha be extended till Saturday, 10 February 2024 to dispose of the necessary government business.”
Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar of the Rajya Sabha also added a day to the session. The decision was made in the midst of speculation that the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, led by Congress, had presented a “white paper” on the economy. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, led that government. The Union Interim Budget, which was presented on February 1st, contained an announcement by the government that a “White Paper” comparing the economic performance of the BJP-led NDA government and the Congress-led UPA government over a ten-year period would be released.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during the introduction of the Interim Budget 2024–25 in Parliament that the economy has been firmly placed on a high sustainable growth path and that the Modi government, which took office in 2014, overcame the crisis of those years. “In 2014 when our Government assumed the reins, the responsibility to mend the economy step by step and to put the governance systems in order was enormous. The need of the hour was to give hope to the people, to attract investments, and to build support for the much-needed reforms. The government did that successfully following our strong belief of ‘nation-first’,” she said.
“The crisis of those years has been overcome, and the economy has been put firmly on a high sustainable growth path with all-round development.”
She announced that the Government will lay a White Paper on the table of the House “to look at where we were then till 2014 and where we are now, only for the purpose of drawing lessons from the mismanagement of those years”.
