Days after it made its intentions clear and decided to fight the 2024 general elections on its own, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) sounded the poll bugle on Thursday, March 16, as the party attacked the central government for making the parliament irrelevant.
“The central government is turning parliament into a deep, dark chamber. It is making parliament irrelevant,” TMC RS MP Derek O’Brien said.
“Parliament is accountable to the people. But the central government doesn’t want it to be accountable to the people,” he said, while pointing out that in the last four years, there has been no deputy speaker in the Lok Sabha.
TMC also pointed out that in Lok Sabha, only six short-duration discussions, under Rule 193, have been taken up compared to earlier Lok Sabha discussions.
“It is similar in the Rajya Sabha. In the last six years, no opposition MPs were given a chance to raise Rule 267 to discuss an issue of importance,” O’Brien said.
“Scrutiny of Bills, even during UPA-II and before, was at around 60-65 per cent. Six out of 10 bills would be scrutinized,” O’Brien said.
“One out of 10 Bills gets scrutinised by the central government. Is this not reason enough to say that Parliament is being turned into a deep, dark chamber?” questions O’Brien.
The TMC also targeted the central government on the controversial Adani issue, following the Hindenburg report. The TMC, while demanding an inquiry into the matter, questioned the central government about why the central investigation agencies – Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) – were not investigating the matter.
“What is stopping the CBI and ED from investigating the man who looted 130 crore Indians? How was it plundered? What is stopping ED and CBI from unearthing this matter?” O’Brien wondered.
Joining in, TMC Lok Sabha MP Sougata Roy asked, “What is stopping the ED from finding out and punishing the perpetrators of this crime?”
TMC also appealed to all non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states conduct investigations to stop what they termed “the loot”.
“We appeal to like-minded parties to stand united. What we are proposing is a constructive, time-bound proposal. Conduct investigations to stop them from looting common people,” O’Brien said.