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| Without question hour, private members bill, Parliament session is a mockery of democracy, says Harsh | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 4: Expressing dismay over the decision of the BJP government at the centre to dispense with the question hour as well as the private members bills in the upcoming session of the parliament, Harsh Dev Singh chairman JKNPP and former minister questioned as to why at all was said session being conveyed for as many as 17 days. “The govt could very well have fulfilled the constitutional formality by holding the session for a day or so and notified the newly proposed legislation and other amendments in official gazette through presidential ordinances which it often had been doing in the past. It was strange to note that despite two and a half week session, the members of the parliament would be deprived of the their democratic rights of questioning the govt over its policies & programmes and that too at a time when the nation is faced with countless social and economic challenges and afflicted with multiple ills and not corona alone. The denial to elected representatives of the most cherished opportunities of raising questions and highlighting people’s concerns through bills and resolutions was a highly retrograde move which could never be justified by resorting to frivolous excuses. The BJP govt’s decision as such was completely antithetical to the spirit of democracy”, asserted Singh. Accusing the govt of shying away from discussing the prevalent scenario in the country, Mr Singh said that no amount of reasoning could justify the highly undemocratic and dictatorial move of the present rulers. “Convening a session merely for securing legislative sanction of govt business would be dwarfing parliament’s sanctity and role. Scrapping question hour, which is an integral element of parliamentary session, is to evade the executive’s accountability to legislature. If all the other business of the govt could be transacted during the said session, then why the plea of corona was being taken with respect to the public concerns which are raised by the members only through questions, particularly starred questions, resolutions and bills which have been completely disallowed. With only govt business to be transacted during the entire course of session, it would merely provide a one sided version of the ruling party in the house with hardly any scope for individual members to agitate the other issues of public significance. The only inference that can be drawn from the govt’s authoritarian move is that it is opposed to openness and transparency and that it is using Covid as a ploy to insulate the govt from parliamentary scrutiny”, said Singh. Singh said that with neither any elected govt nor legislature in J&K, the people of J&K UT in particular were pinning all hopes on parliament with regard to the multifarious problems faced by the general masses which could have been raised by the members in the parliament for a possible solution. |
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