Parliamentary rules being jettisoned for political benefits: CPI-M

Objecting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's choice of time to reply to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President's address in the Rajya Sabha, the CPI-M on Tuesday said that parliamentary rules are being "jettisoned" for political benefits by the ruling party.

"The parliamentary norms are being jettisoned for the sake of their (ruling party's) political benefits," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said here.

The Prime Minster is set to speak at 11 a.m. in the upper House on Wednesday.

Yechury said that this would not only scuttle the day's business of the upper House, it is also a "serious violation of rules" of the Rajya Sabha, and demanded that the Prime Minister should either speak on Tuesday evening or should let the discussion continue on Wednesday and speak after that.

"The Prime Minister wants to come and speak in Rajya Sabha tomorrow at 11 o'clock. Now, 11 a.m. is Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha which is very important as it is the only forum where we raise issues of public importance. That is sought to be jettisoned due to Prime Minister's availability," Yechury said.

"Then at 12 o'clock is our mandatory Question Hour. But given the quantum of his speech in Lok Sabha today, where he spoke for one hour and 45 minutes, he is unlikely to finish before the Question Hour begins. In which case, it is going to be a peculiar embarrassment in Parliament where the Chair will have to interrupt the Prime Minister to start the Question Hour," Yechuri said.

"Or the Chair waives the Question Hour, which is as good as accepting a 267 notice in Rajya Sabha -- that is, suspension of Question Hour for something important. In either case, this is going to be a serious violation of the rules of Rajya Sabha," Yechury said.

He said that since the reply is set to be "a political propaganda outlet for the Prime Minister and for the BJP, particularly keeping in view the Uttar Pradesh elections", this is not "correct practice".

"We said as much in business advisory committee today. But he (Prime Minister) wishes to give us a suo motu appearance, like a guest lecture and walk away. So, he is like a visiting professor in a university. This is unacceptable," Yechury said.

The Left party leader said that as a Rajya Sabha tradition, after any minister, including the Prime Minister, makes a statement or even reply to any discussion, "they are obliged to face and take clarifications".

"In the last two years, there were amendments made and carried. On both occasions the ruling party lost," he said.

Yechury alleged that the Narendra Modi government is trying to bulldoze the discussion on the Budget 2017-18.

--IANS

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