Parliament being made irrelevant by Modi govt, says Jairam Ramesh

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 13

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday said the government was rendering Parliament irrelevant and the opposition was agitated for lack of parliamentary scrutiny over bills.

Levelling allegations against the presiding officers of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha of being “complicit”, the Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha Ramesh said, “Why’s the Opposition agitated? One of the reasons: Only 12% of Bills in Modi-II have gone through any Parliamentary Committee scrutiny. This was 27% in Modi-I, 71% in UPA-II & 60% in UPA-I.”

Ramesh said Parliament was “being made irrelevant by Modi Govt and the Presiding Officers are complicit.”

The government on Thursday met Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and demanded exemplary punishment for the misconduct of opposition MPs in the Upper House during the just-concluded monsoon session.

The government has asked for a probe panel along the lines of the one former speaker Somnath Chatterjee set up in 2005 to investigate allegations that some MPs were asking parliamentary questions in lieu for cash.

The panel headed by then parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal found 11 MPs guilty and recommended their expulsion.

In December 2005, Parliament in an unprecedented vote expelled the errant MPs.