Parliament action stalled – uttamhindu.com

by Rahul Gandhi The parties and the opposition are standing face to face with each other regarding the statement given in London and the demand for investigation by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Adani issue, no one seems to be backing down from their demand. As a result, the proceedings in both the Houses of the Parliament have come to a standstill. The situation is now such that amidst the uproar, the government has demanded the approval of the Jammu and Kashmir Finance Bill, the Finance Bill, the demands for grants related to various ministries. For this, the government has only time till March 31. So far all the meetings of the second phase of the budget session have been almost unsuccessful in terms of functioning. In the Upper House, not even an iota of work has been done in the seven sittings. The government is now assuming that no middle way will be found to avoid controversy in this session. According to a senior government minister, a proposal was sent to end the dispute. The government wants that both the parties should present their views on the dispute and after that let the proceedings of the house go on peacefully.

Union minister Hardeep Puri said at a press conference that the impasse in Parliament would have ended if former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had apologized for his remarks in the context of Indian democracy in London. It may be noted that in a recent event in London, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that the structure of Indian democracy is under ‘barbaric attack’. He regretted that the democratic parts of the world, including America and Europe, have failed to heed it. Rahul had also alleged in the lecture that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was destroying India’s democratic structure. His comments created a big political controversy. The BJP has accused him of defaming India on foreign soil and seeking foreign intervention, while the Congress hit back, citing examples of Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the issue of internal politics abroad. Puri said, ‘If a person goes outside the country, he has the freedom of speech. But with freedom of expression also comes a sense of responsibility. He said that India is the largest and oldest democracy in the world and there is no doubt about it. “But Gandhi going to Britain and saying that the basic structure of Indian democracy is under attack… Anyone saying that Indian democracy is in danger needs serious introspection,” he said. The Housing and Urban Affairs Minister demanded that the Congress leader should categorically apologize for his remarks to put an end to the issue.

The opposition parties are adamant on demanding a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee into the Adani issue, with parliamentary proceedings stalled due to a tussle between the parties. About Rs 1.5 crore is spent on one hour’s proceedings in Parliament, that is, Rs 2.5 lakh is spent on every minute’s proceedings. In such a situation, it can be estimated that how much public money is wasted due to the boycott and uproar in both the Houses of the Parliament. Broadly speaking, Parliament works for six to seven months in three sessions of the year. Even in this, if we exclude holidays and weekends, then two to three months are reduced. In this context, the actual working days are only 70-80 in a year. But even for so many days the Parliament could not function. According to parliamentary statistics, about 92 hours were lost due to disruptions during the winter session in December 2016. During this period, there was a loss of about Rs 144 crores, which includes Rs 138 crores on the expenses of running the Parliament and Rs 6 crores on salary, allowances and accommodation of the parliamentarians. Compared to the Budget Sessions of the past few years, the Budget Session usually takes up about 20 per cent of the hours earmarked for discussion on the Budget, or 33 hours. In the budget session of the year 2018, a total of 21 percent (Lok Sabha) and 31 percent (Rajya Sabha) work was done. According to statistics, the winter session of 2010 was the worst session in terms of productivity. After this comes the number of Parliament sessions of 2013 and 2016. 900 hours of Parliament were wasted between 2010-2014, so imagine how much money must have been wasted. The irony of all this is that whether it is the opposition or the government, no one is concerned about how the money of the people of the country is being wasted.

The Supreme Court has formed an inquiry committee regarding the Adani case. After that there is no justification for the demand of Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Committee. If Rahul Gandhi, after apologizing for the statement given in London in the Parliament, had put his point again in the Lok Sabha, at least the time of the Parliament and the money of the general public would not have been wasted.

– Irwin Khanna (Chief Editor, Dainik Uttam Hindu)