Very disappointing monsoon session; government rushed to end it: Congress

New Delhi: The Monsoon session of Parliament, according to the Congress, was "highly disappointing," and the administration did not have the desire to keep things going until the scheduled date of August 12—despite the fact that opposition parties were prepared to stay until the very end to discuss and pass bills.

After ongoing disruptions for the past three weeks over problems including price increases, the suspension of 27 MPs, the contentious "Rashtrapatni" comment, and the Enforcement Directorate's action, the Monsoon session ended on Monday, four days ahead of schedule.

The government only succeeded in passing seven in the Lok Sabha and five in the Rajya Sabha, according to the Congress, despite having 32 items listed at the beginning of the session.

"It was also extraordinary that one-and-a-half-day of proceedings were disrupted by treasury benches which kept insisting on an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi for remarks made by Leader of the Party in Lok Sabha who had already apologised for his statement both verbally as well as in writing," AICC general secretary, communication, and party's chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh said.

He said the coming together of opposition parties to demand a review of the Supreme Court's order on PMLA is a "huge step towards strengthening democracy", and noted that "cadre mobilisation of the Congress on people's issues and ED high-handedness" was a "great benefit of the Monsoon session for the party and the August 5 anti-ED protest even put Home Minister Amit Shah on the 'back foot'."

Terming the Monsoon session as "extremely disappointing", he said, "There was no enthusiasm or appetite on part of the government to get bills passed.

Normally the opposition says the House should be adjourned but this time the government had no appetite to run the house". He said the opposition was ready to sit on August 10 and 12 to discuss and pass bills but the government was in a rush to curtail the session.

"The reason cited was that BJP MPs don't want to return after Raksha Bandhan on August 11," said Jairam adding the houses could have sat on August 10. He said the government had listed 32 bills at the start of the session but managed to pass only seven in the Lok Sabha and five in the Rajya Sabha.

"The government had no business in its agenda. The floor management was not good. Earlier the prime minister used to ignore Parliament and now even the ministers are doing so," Ramesh charged.

He also made mention of Dharmendra Pradhan, the education minister, who was not present on Monday when the Central University Bill was being presented in the Rajya Sabha.

"IT and communication minister Ashwini Vaishnav piloted the bill and replied to it," said Jairam adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen in Rajya Sabha for the first time on Monday when he spoke during the farewell of House Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said the government knew about the holidays beforehand so why did it not plan accordingly.

Ramesh said probably this Monsoon session was the last in the current Parliament building because "we have been told that the Winter session will be held in the new building".

Source-PTI