New Delhi: The Union government on Sunday hit out at the opposition as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that the leaders were making issues out of non-issues and trying to belittle the image of Parliament.
Addressing reporters after the all-party meeting ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament, Pralhad Joshi was asked about the demand for a discussion on the Agnipath scheme. He said that the government was open to discussing all issues under the rules and procedures of Parliament.
The Union minister condemned the opposition for creating a row over circular on unparliamentary words as he said that such a practice is being carried on since 1954 when the first such list was brought out. He said the opposition was doing so because it was devoid of any issues against the Centre.
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“The opposition is trying to make issues out of non-issues as they do not have anything against the Government,” Joshi told reporters, as quoted by news agency PTI.
He further claimed that the government was “doing good work” and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was recognised not just by people within India but also those abroad.
“The Opposition is trying to belittle the image of Parliament,” he alleged in response to the row over unparliamentary words.
“No word has been barred from use in Parliament and the Lok Sabha Secretariat has been bringing out such a list of unparliamentary words since 1954,” the minister stated.
On the opposition criticism over the absence of the Prime Minister from the all-party meeting, Pralhad Joshi said, “The Prime Minister never attended all-party meetings before 2014 when Congress was in power”.
“Congress’s Jairam Ramesh raised the issue that PM didn’t attend the meeting today. I want to tell him that before 2014, PM never used to attend an all-party meet. How many times did Manmohan Singh ji attend the all-party meeting?”: news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
The Parliamentary Affairs Minister also informed that the government would hold an all-party meeting on the Sri Lanka situation on Tuesday which will be chaired by Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar.
“32 bills have been indicated from various departments will be presented in this session of Parliament. 14 bills are ready. We will not pass the bills without discussion,” he stated.
Govt Didn’t Inform About 14 Bills To Be Tabled: Mallikarjun Kharge
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the BJP-led government did not inform the opposition about the 14 bills to be presented in the session beginning Monday.
“We took up 13 issues in the all-party meeting. Govt will present 32 bills in the Parliament session of which only 14 are ready. They didn’t even tell us about those 14 bills. We’ll barely have 14 working days in session. We have to discuss 20 topics and pass 32 bills,” the Congress leader said, as quoted by ANI.
He further stated that issues including “Chinese incursion, foreign policy, changes in Forest Conversation Act, issues relating to J&K and Kashmiri pandits, attacks against Congress leaders” need to be discussed.
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All-Party Meeting & Parliament’s Monsoon Session
The meeting in Parliament Annexe building was chaired by Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Union minister Piyush Goyal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also expected to be in attendance, but he was not present.
The prominent leaders who attended the all-party meeting include Congress MPs Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, Rashtriya Lok Dal MP Jayant Chaudhary, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva, AIADMK MP Dr M Thambi Durai, YSRCP MP Vijayasai Reddy, TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, and Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel.
This year’s Monsoon Session starting tomorrow is particularly important as polls for electing the new President and Vice-President are slated to take place in this session.
The Presidential polls will be held on July 18 while the Vice Presidential polls will take place on August 6.