Too little democracy

Postponing the winter session should have been avoided

The government has offered a specious reason to cancel the winter session of Parliament and club it instead with the Budget session in January 2021. The threat of Covid-19 spiking during the winter months, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi said, had prompted the government to hold informal talks with floor leaders of various political parties to approve a postponement. Given that the monsoon session of Parliament was held around the time the number of Covid-19 infections was peaking — it crossed 80,000 cases per day just before the session was truncated by eight days ending on September 24 — this