Alleging that the Modi government used Parliament as a “rubber stamp” during its previous tenure, the Congress Monday hoped that this trend is reversed and key bills are not pushed without legislative scrutiny using “brute majority”.
The Congress’ assertion came in response to Prime MinisterNarendraModi’s remarks ahead of the Monsoon Session that the opposition neednot “bother about their numbers” as their every word is”valuable” to the government.
“Legislation through ordinance is a very unhealthypractice in a democracy. It should only be used in extreme cases where there isan emergency requirement otherwise the due processes of lawmaking must to befollowed by the government in office,” senior Congress leader Anand Sharmasaid.
“We will now wait for the Prime Minister’s assurance inthis regard and whether the practice that was followed in the last five yearsis reversed, because in the last five years what we have seen is disrespect toParliament, where the bills were brought by the government and because of itsbrute majority in the LokSabha, Parliament was treated as a rubber stamp,”he said.
Most of the bills were not sent to the standing committeefor legislative scrutiny which is important for any law to be made, Sharmasaid.
The Congress hopes that now this practice will be honouredand dependence of ordinance and pushing through the bills without scrutiny willnot be repeated by the government, he said.
Earlier in the dayt, addressing the media outside parliamentbefore the commencement of the first session of the 17th LokSabha, Modi said,”When we come to Parliament, we should forget ‘paksh’ (treasury) and’vipaksh’ (opposition). We should think about issues with a ‘nishpaksh'(impartial) spirit and work in the larger interest of the nation.”
Underlining the importance of an active opposition in aparliamentary democracy, Modi said he hopes the opposition “will speakactively and participate in House proceedings… I am hopeful that this sessionwill be productive.””The role of an opposition and an activeopposition is important perquisite in a parliamentary democracy. The oppositionneed not bother about their numbers. I hope they speak actively and participatein House proceedings…Their every word…Every feeling is valuable tous,” he said.