Overview
- The Uttar Pradesh Monsoon Session opened on Monday, Aug 3, with Samajwadi Party legislators staging protests in the assembly precincts using donation boxes to press allegations that offerings at the Ayodhya Ram Temple were siphoned.
- A Special Investigation Team had submitted a preliminary report earlier this year and Ayodhya police filed an FIR against eight people, after which the state reconstituted the SIT under IG Kiran S following a Supreme Court direction.
- The Legislative Council Business Advisory Committee agreed to defer the state’s supplementary budget debate at the Opposition’s request, shifting that debate to later days of the four-day session.
- Opposition MPs staged symbolic protests in the Parliament complex and repeatedly disrupted both Houses while demanding Home Minister Amit Shah answer questions on police action against student protesters, forcing adjournments and delaying the government’s legislative timetable.
- The stand-off raises two risks: it will compress debate on the state’s spending plans and may limit scrutiny of four central bills the Union government plans to press through during the Monsoon Session, and it keeps a charged political issue tied to faith and governance at the centre of the campaign ahead.