The Monsoon Session of Parliament ending four days ahead of schedule shows that the Bharatiya Janata Party had “run away” from responding to matters of national importance, the Congress said on Tuesday.
“The Congress wanted to table the rising unemployment issue, followed by the Agnipath scheme,” the party’s Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi said at a press conference on Tuesday morning. “There have been meetings between India and China on border disputes for nearly 16 times and today the Indian Army cannot patrol along the border. The BJP wanted to run away from discussing such matters.”
The Monsoon Session ended on Monday as both Houses were adjourned sine die, or without a fixed date for resumption. The session was originally scheduled to be held between July 18 and August 12.
While the Lok Sabha saw a total of 16 sittings that lasted for 44 hours and 29 minutes, the Rajya Sabha met for 38 hours with 47 hours lost due to disruptions.
Gogoi, who was accompanied by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh at the press conference on Tuesday, said that the BJP dodged questions about the rising inflation in the country.
“When asked about it in Parliament, the finance minister will talk about Ukraine, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and even history, but she has no answer on the steps taken by the government to solve the problem of inflation,” Gogoi added.
He said that action was taken against MPs who highlighted the matter of price rise in the House.
Gogoi was referring to the four Congress MPs who were suspended on July 25 after they had used placards during a protest in the Lok Sabha over price rise.
“Today, we get to hear threats, not answers, from ministers during the Question Hour,” he added. “We strongly condemn the way the minister of corporate affairs [Nirmala Sitharaman] used unparliamentary language.”
Sitharaman had on July 28 asked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to apologise after party MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury referred to President Droupadi Murmu as “rashtrapatni”. Sitharaman’s remarks were later expunged from Rajya Sabha records.
Gogoi described the Monsoon Session as “agenda-less”.
‘No eagerness from government side,’ says Ramesh
Meanwhile, the Congress Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh, said that the Opposition was ready for discussions on August 10 and 12, “but no eagerness was seen from the government side”.
“During the all-party meeting on July 17, the government said that it wants to introduce or pass 32 bills in this Monsoon Session,” he said. “But in reality, only seven bills have been passed in the Lok Sabha and five bills in the Rajya Sabha.”
Ramesh also criticised the recent Supreme Court judgement, upholding the Enforcement Directorate’s power to arrest and seize properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“For the first time, 16 Opposition party and two independent MPs signed a joint statement and raised their voice against the PMLA amendment brought by the Narendra Modi government,” he said. “We tried a lot in this session to raise important issues related to the country in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, but we could not get them all discussed.”
Ramesh said that the Congress will now seek answers from the Centre outside Parliament on matters such as inflation, unemployment and the Goods and Services Tax imposed on essentials.
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