New Delhi: With the monsoon session of Parliament having witnessed continuous disruptions by opposition over their demands, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Saturday that he made constant efforts to urge and convince Congress and other opposition parties to allow discussion in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, but to no avail.
“Mera gala bhi baith gaya dekho. Opposition ko chilla chilla ke mai anurodh karta hoon ki behas hone dijiye. (My throat got sore, I repeatedly urged opposition to allow discussion.” he said.
In an interview with ANI, Rijiju noted that in a parliamentary democracy, the Parliament belongs to the Opposition as they can seek answers from the government.
“The government is liable to answer. The Opposition has to ask questions. What would the government do if the ones who are supposed to ask questions ran away? We have been asking them not to cause a disturbance. My throat got sore because I had to shout and ask the Opposition not to create a ruckus,” he said.
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha faced continuous disruptions during the monsoon session over the opposition’s demand for a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
With both the Houses witnessing repeated adjournments due to disruptions throughout the session, which concluded on Thursday, the productivity of Lok Sabha was about 31% and that of Rajya Sabha was about 39%. In the Lok Sabha, discussions could happen for only 37 hours out of the total available 120 hours and in the Rajya Sabha, discussions took place for 41 hours and 15 minutes. A total of 15 bills were passed by Parliament during the session.
Answering queries, Rijiju said the session was “successful from the nation’s point of view and a failure from the Opposition’s point of view”.
Rijiju also said the people in the country are welcoming the provisions of the Constitution Amendment Bill introduced in Lok Sabha and the opposition parties would have welcomed it too if they “had kept ethics at the centre.”
The bill provides for the removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Minister or any other Minister in the central or a state government, if he is arrested and detained in custody on account of serious criminal offences. Two more bills to apply similar provisions in Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir were also introduced in Lok Sahba. The three bills will be examined by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Rijiju said Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the cabinet that the recommendation is to keep the Prime Minister out of this constitution amendment bill, but he did not agree.
“PM Modi refused to give an exception to the prime minister. The PM is also a citizen, and he should not have special protection. Most of the CMs are from our party. If they do something wrong, they have to leave their position. Ethics should also mean something. The Opposition would have welcomed this bill had they kept ethics at the centre,” Rijiju said. (ANI)
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