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and Thursday this week will be holidays, and Parliament can only meet on three days.
According to reports, the Zero Hour and Question Hour will be skipped on August 8 to allow for a farewell function in Rajya Sabha for retiring Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, who is also the country’s Vice President. The second half of the day could see the passage of two bills, after which the House would adjourn sine die, as proposed by the opposition.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said he was veering to the conclusion that Parliament has become “dysfunctional” and alleged that democracy is “gasping for breath” in India with almost all institutions tamed, emasculated or captured. He also said Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu “failed” to protect Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge last week from being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) when the House was in session.
In an interview with PTI, Chidambaram also dismissed Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks linking the Congress’ demonstration against price rise on Friday to the Ram temple foundation day, saying the anniversary of the ‘shilanyas’ was “far from our mind” when the date for the protest was fixed. It was fixed taking into account that all the MPs will be in Delhi on Friday because the voting for the vice presidential poll was on Saturday, he said, adding that one can always twist logic to blame someone.
“Moreover, it was on August 5, 2019 that the illegal dismembering of Jammu and Kashmir took place! Let’s leave these aside when discussing a serious issue,” Chidambaram said. Shah had linked Congress leaders’ protest in black clothes over the issues of price rise, unemployment and GST hike to what he said was the party’s “appeasement” politics to convey its opposition to the Ram temple foundation stone laying by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5 in 2020.
Chidambaram also rejected BJP leaders’ charge that the Congress’ protest on August 5 was an attempt to save the party’s top leadership that is facing questioning by the ED in the National Herald case. “We had announced and made it clear that the protests on August 5 were exclusively on inflation, unemployment and Agnipath. If people pretend to be deaf and blind to the announcement, what can we do?” he said.
The leaders summoned in the National Herald case are strong enough to defend themselves and they also have the full support of the rank and file of the party, Chidambaram asserted. Asked about Kharge’s summoning by the ED during the working hours of Parliament last Thursday, he said it was a “sad day” for Rajya Sabha when the Chairman “failed to protect” the Leader of the Opposition from being summoned when the House was in session.
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