Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar said on Tuesday that the Parliamentary affairs panel will meet “in the next couple of days” to decide the dates for the Winter Session, ANI reported.
He also said the Congress was “suffering from selective amnesia”, a day after the Opposition party alleged that the government was delaying the Winter Session on “flimsy grounds”.
“Many times, the Winter Session has been held during the month of December to accommodate state elections,” Kumar said. “We are committed to hold the session...and in the next couple of days we are going to have Cabinet Committee meeting on parliamentary affairs and decide the dates.”
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had on Monday said the government’s “arrogance” had “cast a dark shadow on India’s Parliamentary democracy by sabotaging the Winter Session on flimsy grounds”.
“It’s [The government is] mistaken if it thinks by locking the temple of democracy, it will escape constitutional accountability ahead of elections,” she said.
Reports earlier this month had said that the government may shorten or cancel the Winter Session, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top ministers were busy campaigning for the Assembly elections.
The Winter Session is usually held from mid-November till the third week of December. As per the norm, two Parliament sessions cannot be more than six months apart. The government has till February to hold the next session, as the Monsoon Session ended on August 11.
The elections in Himachal Pradesh were held on November 9. Gujarat will go to the polls on December 9 and December 14. The results will be declared on December 18.
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