Due to a hectic schedule abroad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has got little time to prepare politically for a stormy Winter Session of Parliament.
In the next four weeks, Modi will travel to Malaysia for the East Asia summit, to Singapore for a bilateral visit, to Paris for the climate change conference and to Russia for an annual summit with President Vladimir Putin.
The PM's Paris and Moscow trips have been scheduled when the Parliament is in session, though the Ministry of External Affairs is trying to ensure that the PM is out of Delhi from Friday to Sunday, so that he is present on the key days from Monday to Thursday. The winter session itself is troublesome for two reasons.
The stand-off with the opposition shows no signs of ending as the Congress has declared that it would insist on a discussion on the issue of communal intolerance and the return of awards by writers and artistes.
The BJP has repeatedly said these are isolated instances and that the protests are manufactured.
The huge win of the Grand Alliance in Bihar has made the opposition more determined to pin the government, even if it means continuous disruption of the House.
Sensing the government's desperation to amend the Constitution for bringing the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Congress, which has the upper hand in the Rajya Sabha, is insisting that three amendments should be accepted.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is the pointsman of the PM in the Rajya Sabha, is equally adamant that he would not accept the changes demanded by the Congress.
The session could be a 'washout' if a consensus is not reached, and only a flexible PM can salvage the situation.
But the Bihar drubbing also means that the PM has to reach out to his own party's lawmakers. There are murmurs of discontent within the party rank and file.
The harsh words against his style of leadership has come from those whom he has ignored throughout his eighteen month's at helm. Among the four senior leaders who issued a statement against the party's collectively responsibility theory to defend the Bihar fiasco, three – L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Shantha Kumar are members of Lok Sabha.
Two other Lok Sabha members -- filmstar-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha and former home secretary R.K.Singh -- have also been sharply critical of the style of functioning of Modi and Amit Shah.
After the Bihar defeat, two more MPs -- former Deputy Speaker Karia Munda of Jharkand and Bhola Pandey, a veteran party leader in Bihar, -- have also come out strongly against the leadership.
Even though the criticism has come from just seven out of its 282 members in the Lok Sabha, there are nearly 100 MPs who are miffed with Modi and his office for other reasons.
These lawmakers are upset that they do not have access to the prime minister to take up issues regarding their constituencies and to narrate complaints against union ministers.
Modi's office cites his hectic schedule as the reason for not meeting MPs frequently. It points out that every letter or email from MPs is not only acknowledged, but action is also taken.
Now Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu has sought a regular time slot during the Winter Session for party MPs to interact with the PM.
Tailpiece: Interestingly, the first two days of Winter Session have been devoted for discussing the contribution of Dr B.R.Ambedkar to the making of the Constitution. However, Naidu dropped the idea of holding a joint session as he was not sure of the opposition's cooperation.
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