New Delhi, July 18: Opposition parties on Sunday objected to the government’s offer for a joint address to all MPs by the prime minister on Covid at the Parliament annexe, saying this will be “highly irregular” at a time when Parliament will be in session and it aims to “bypass” norms.
Leaders, including from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the CPI(M), also said that when the Covid pandemic and issues related to it can be discussed on the floor of the House, what was the need to go “outside”. The annexe is a separate building within the premises of the Parliament complex.
In an all-party meeting on Sunday, a day before the Monsoon Session of Parliament begins, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address MPs of both the Houses — Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha — on July 20 and speak on the pandemic. “What is the need to go outside Parliament? Any address should be on the floor of the House. This is another idea to bypass Parliament. Stop making a mockery of the Parliament. How far will Modi and (Union Home Minister Amit) Shah go? Just when we thought that they cannot go lower, they want to make a presentation in the annexe and not on the floor of the House,” TMC Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien, who was at the meeting, said.
Sources in other opposition parties confirmed that Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi’s offer has been refused and that some have even suggested a joint sitting of the Houses at the Central Hall. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that the party’s position has always been that when Parliament is in session, whatever the government has to say, it can do so on the floor of the House.
O’Brien claimed that all opposition leaders present in the meeting, including Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Samajwadi Party’s Ramgopal Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Satish Mishra refused to be addressed “outside” Parliament. Some opposition party MPs, on the condition of anonymity, said some parties have already planned to give notices on the Covid situation issue in Parliament and no one wanted to listen to the government anywhere other than the floor of the Parliament. (PTI)
