PM Narendra Modi addresses the media at Parliament House as he arrives to attend the Budget session.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the coming decade is vital for India’s progress and that "we have to remember the vision and dreams of the greats who fought for our nation’s freedom". He said that "a golden opportunity has come before the nation to fulfill the dreams seen by the freedom fighters".
"This decade should be fully utilised. Keeping this in mind, there should be discussions in this session focussing on the decade - this is expected by the nation. I believe that we will not lag behind in making our contribution for the fulfilment of people's aspiration," he told reporters outside the Parliament on the day 1 of the Budget Session.
"This is the Budget Session. For the first time in India's history, in a way, the Finance Minister had to present 4-5 mini budgets in 2020 in the form of different packages. So this Budget will be seen as a part of those 4-5 mini budgets, I believe this," he added.
Meanwhile, the Budget session is likely to witness acrimonious scenes, with the opposition parties announcing that they will boycott the President's address. They have prepred a strategy to corner the government on issues like farmer protest, recession, job losses, handling of COVID crisis and LAC stand-off with China. A total of 18 Opposition parties including the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, National Conference, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI, Indian Union Muslim League, RSP, Peoples Democratic Party, MDMK, Kerala Congress (M) and the All India United Democratic Front have announced to boycott the President's address. The Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party also separately announced their decision of boycotting the address. There are over 20 opposition parties in Parliament.
The President's address will be followed by the presentation of the Economic Survey. The Union Budget will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. Both the Houses will also debate on the Motion of thanks to the President's address after the budget presentation.
The session will be held in two parts --January 29 to February 15 and March 8 to April 8 and will have a total of 33 sittings.
