Budget session : Rajya Sabha resumes session, Amit Shah addresses house

Both houses of Parliament convened on Monday, after finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union budget 2018-2019 on February 1.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day owing to the death of Hukum Singh, a member from Uttar Pradesh's Kairana.

In the Rajya Sabha, BJP national president Amit Shah, a first-time member, is expected to initiate debate on the President's speech.

In his joint address to both houses on January 29, President Ram Nath Kovind supported the idea of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly election, something that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also keen on.

 In his maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha, BJP president Amit Shah said it was better to sell 'pakodas' than to be unemployed.

"I think it is better to be a labourer or sell 'pakodas' than to be unemployed. There is no shame in selling 'pakodas'," he said, standing a few feet away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was also present in the House.

Shah attacked the Congress over unemployment, wondering that since the issue had persisted after "55 years of your rule, who's fault is it?"

"This problem didn't suddenly



emerge," he charged.

He further said that the previous UPA governments suffered from policy paralysis.

The BJP chief counted the Modi-led government's Jan Dhan Yojana as one of its major successes. He said that before the BJP came to power, most families did not have "even one bank account."

In his speech, Shah defended the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and assured that once the initial hiccups were over, it would benefit the country.

However, he took exception to the Congress referring to the GST as 'Gabbar Singh Tax'.

"Gabbar Singh was a Hindi film dacoit. How can you call a legal tax dacoity," he questioned.

He credited the Centre with handling the "crucial" Kashmir issue "very well."

On the issue of surgical strikes, Shah said: "Surgical strike was a historic moment. The world started seeing India from a different view. They realised that after America and Israel, India is the only country which can protect its soldiers and Army."

Shah urged the opposition to rise above politics to solve pressing issues facing the country.

The BJP leader was elected to the Upper House of Parliament in August 2017.