Signalling her support for the government move to raise taxes on fuel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday backed finance minister Pranab Mukherjee?s Union Budget.
?We have many essential social obligations and to meet them it is necessary to raise resources,? Gandhi told a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party.
Backing from Gandhi appears to show that the government will not roll back the fuel rates despite opposition from its own coalition allies.
Cautioning party MPs not attending Parliament, Gandhi indicated that the leadership will have to crack the whip if they fail to be serious about their legislative duties.
?In almost all my addresses to you, I have felt compelled to refer to another issue, that of attendance. Regular attendance is part of our basic duty and responsibility,? she said. ?Even to sit and listen to parliamentary proceedings is an education in itself. The time has come to take poor attendance on the part of the members seriously.?
Question Hour had collapsed in the last session of Parliament due to absence of MPs from the House, many of them from the Congress.
Gandhi also underlined the need for improving coordination between the party and the government to keep the MPs better informed on issues likely to be raised by the Opposition.
?We have taken steps to improve coordination between the party and the government to keep our MPs better informed on issues likely to be raised by the opposition and enhance the quality of our Parliamentary interventions,? she said.
From time to time the ministers, she said, will brief the MPs on important programmes and schemes in their charge. Noting that the rural development minister has already done so, she urged all MPs, especially younger and first-term members to take full advantage of these opportunities.
Describing the right to food security as ?the most important pledge? in the Congress manifesto last year, Gandhi said, ?We are now ready for the next step of placing the draft Bill for discussion in the public domain.?