New Delhi: Making a scathing attack on the ruling government at the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trinamool Congress (TMC) raised questions over his absence in Parliament during the recent monsoon session.
In a press conference in the national capital, its senior Parliamentarians claimed that both the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister were missing throughout the Parliament proceedings. "Why couldn't they find time to come and be present in the Parliament to listen to us?"
The monsoon session witnessed a month-long standoff by the opposition parties over the Pegasus issue, farm bills, fuel price hike, inflation and unemployment, which caused a logjam.
While speaking to the media persons, TMC's senior Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy claimed, whereas the erstwhile Prime Minister Manmohan Singh answered 21 questions during the 15th Lok Sabha, why would the incumbent PM does not answer questions pertaining to his ministries? "In Lok Sabha on every Wednesday, the Prime Minister is supposed to answer the questions of his concern ministries during the Parliament session. However, in this session, PM Modi was absent and did not bother to answer a single question," he mentioned.
TMC also questioned the government over six other issues. It claimed that the opposition wanted to discuss internal security and the NSO connection but the government did not allow it. The opposition parties also wanted a debate on farmers' protests, but even that did not happen.
Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi expressed disgrace over the logjam by the opposition parties and called it an "insult to the House" and an "insult to democracy, constitution, Parliament and the people".
In fact, Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu broke down in the house while reading out a statement condemning what he called "sacrilege" and violation of the "temple of democracy" by the opposition. Further, the recent monsoon session was recorded as the least productive. However, the TMC hit out at the Centre over the "hurried" passage of Bills in Parliament - stating that around 39 Bills were passed in both the Houses, on an average of one every 10 minutes.
"A total of 39 Bills were passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, without any debate. This is not how a democratic country works, the average time of passing the Bill was 10 minutes and then you say that the opposition is disrupting the session?" TMC Rajya Sabha member Derek O' Brien asserted. The party also claimed that in 2014, 60-70 per cent of the Bills were sent to a parliamentary standing committee for review, however, now only 11 per cent of the Bills are sent for scrutinisation.
During the press conference, the TMC MPs also mentioned that ordinance is used for passing extremely important bills on an emergency basis, but the recent Parliament sessions are recording the passing of around 3.7 ordinances for every 10 bills.
"In the first 30 years since the independence of India, only one ordinance was used for every 10 Bills. But now the BJP government is treating the emergency legislation to be normal legislation." Further, Trinamool raised questions over the appointment of deputy speaker in the Lower House, where the post has been lying vacant for 782 days.
Meanwhile, prominent RTI activist Saket Gokhale has joined TMC in Delhi. Gokhale is also a social activist and has previously served as the Creative Director and Head of Digital Content at Hindustan Times. He has also worked as a correspondent for the Financial Times. He had recently filed an RTI query on the budgetary allocation for Pegasus spyware.
"The TMC is the second-largest opposition party in Parliament and it has been my obvious choice. If you look at all the national parties, the TMC takes an aggressive stand. The way the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been fighting on the front foot, that's what I am looking for," Gokhale said after joining the party.