What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
NEW DELHI: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi questioned the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government on the erosion of the parliament’s significance in the functioning of the country, before the first session held inside the new parliament on Tuesday.
“You have built a swanky new building but for the parliament to function, it must hold its sittings. The Lok Sabha barely functions now and this tenure of the Lower House might just be the lowest we have seen since the previous tenure,” said the AIMIM president to The New Indian. He alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre does not let the Lok Sabha function, and has still not elected a Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha even after six months of the 2023-24 fiscal year.
He further claimed that the present, 17th Lok Sabha, will not meet the record of even the lowest number of sittings which had been seen in the 16th Lok Sabha’s tenure of 331 days.
READ MORE: Democracy’s demand for compromise: Finding common ground in Parliament
According to research conducted by PRS Legislative Research, the Lok Sabha tenure which began from 2019 has seen 247 working days, as of now. It still has a single scheduled session to go underway, apart from the Special Session, namely, the Winter Session.
Owaisi, during his interaction with The New Indian, cited former Lok Sabha speaker, Somanth Chaterjee’s dictum on the appropriate functioning of the parliament and a democracy. “The greatness of Parliament lies not just in its majestic building, but is derived from and sustained by the quality of debates that take place inside it,” he quoted, paying his respects to the late Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader.
The Hyderabad constituency MP, however, swerved past, avoiding questions about the Women’s Reservation Bill that was tabled on the floor of the Lok Sabha by Law Minister Arjun Meghwal.
The Special Session is slated to end on September 22.
