New Delhi: In a statement on Thursday, Trinamool Congress (TMC) compared the Narendra Modi government to the Manmohan Singh government that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA succeeded in 2014. The TMC charged PM Modi with ‘avoiding Parliament’ and compared him to his predecessor Manmohan Singh. According to the TMC, even Manmohan Singh was not comfortable with the parliamentary system, but responded to questions from the Opposition.
TMC accused the Modi government of running away from answering the Opposition’s questions over a range of issues, including the Pegasus snooping row and farmers’ protest against the three farm laws passed by the Parliament last year. Earlier, Parliament’s Monsoon Session ended prematurely amid unabated commotion in both houses.
The Opposition leaders from the Congress, Shiv Sena, and TMC earlier met with Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu over the ruckus in Parliament. The opposition parties alleged the government refused to allow any discussion on Pegasus spyware, farm laws and other issues despite repeated requests. According to the TMC questionnaire, there are 7 points:
1. ‘What happened to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister? Couldn’t they make time to listen to us in Parliament? HD Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh, two former leaders of the country, participated actively in the meeting’.
2. ‘Despite Opposition requests, the government didn’t permit a discussion on Pegasus and the NSO connection. Even a debate on farmers’ protests did not take place. Why?’
3. ‘The Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha passed 39 bills without debate. A democratic country does not work like this. The average time it takes to pass a bill was 10 minutes, and then you claim that the Opposition is disrupting the session?’
4. ‘Even in 2014, 60-70 per cent of the bills were referred to parliamentary committees for review. Now, however, only 11% of bills are sent to the committee for review’.
5. ‘Ordinances are used to pass extremly important bills on an emergency basis. Thirty years ago, one Ordinance was used for every ten bills – now almost four Ordinances are used for every ten bills. As if the emergency legislation was normal legislation, the BJP government regards it as such’.
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6. ‘The PM avoids Parliament. Even Manmohan Singh was never that comfortable with the Parliamentary system – but he used to answer our questions on a designated day every year. PM Modi has never answered any questions since BJP came to power. It is hooliganism’.
7. ‘The government claims it has a huge majority in the Rajya Sabha. Two years have passed – where is the Deputy Speaker of Rajya Sabha, and why has no one been appointed?’
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