The Congress on Monday asked the Centre to convene the winter session of Parliament immediately and explain why it had not yet announced the dates since the convention was to start the session by the third week of November.
At a press conference, former Minister Manish Tewari termed it “unfortunate” that the Modi government had not honoured the tradition.
Break from tradition
“Today it is the 13th of November 2017 and there is no sign of the winter session which has been our tradition.. What is it that the NDA-BJP government is so scared of that it is running away from convening the session,” Mr. Tewari asked.
He said there were several pressing issues such as the note ban anniversary and its impact on the economy, implementation of the GST, the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and foreign policy issues need structured responses.
Running away
“We would, therefore, like to demand that the winter session be immediately convened and let not an Assembly election in one State or the other become an excuse for the government to run away from facing Parliament,” he said.
The Congress leader alleged that while Prime Minister Modi stressed democratic traditions during his overseas trips, the BJP government had been undermining democratic institutions.
“The larger issue is the complete lack of respect which this government has for institutions be it the Reserve Bank, be it the witch hunt of the CAG, be it the manner in which investigative and law enforcement agencies have been unleashed on Opposition leaders ... this list is endless,” Mr. Tewari said.
