Adjournment of parliamentary proceedings "choreographed and staged" by the BJP: CPM

The CPI(M) today hit out at the Modi government saying the repeated adjournments of Parliament seemed to be "choreographed and staged" by the BJP to thwart the debate on the no-confidence motion against it and escape the opposition's flak.

"There was absolutely no effort by either the parliamentary affairs minister or the Leader of the House or for that matter even the presiding officers to resolve the impasse in the Lok Sabha," CPI(M) leader Mohd Salim told a press conference here.

He said the ministers kept "repeating like mantra" that the government was ready for discussion, but no step was taken by them to mitigate the situation in the Lower House.

"The entire sequence of events every day... like the House being adjourned till noon within minutes, seemed to be choreographed and staged by the ruling party and the government," Salim said.

The House has witnessed protests by AIADMK members over their demand for immediate setting up of Cauvery Management Board, leading to adjournments for the past 21 days since second leg of the budget session began on March 5.

Major issues afflicting the people like a deteriorating economy, the farmers' crisis, the Dalits' issue, lack of jobs, the corporate loot, the bank scams and the flight of "people who are friends of the BJP" to foreign shores after taking huge loans from the banks, were not allowed to be raised in the House due to the adjournments, he said.

Even the Finance Bill, which is the key agenda of the Budget Session, was passed without a debate, Salim said.

"It is a mockery being played on the parliamentary system ... They are trying to replace parliamentary democracy with something else, which poses a grave threat to the institutions," the CPI(M) leader said.

Maintaining that consultative bodies such as National Development Council, National Integration Council or the Centre State Council have not had a single meeting since the BJP came to power, he said "the ruling dispensation is thrusting its decisions without consultation."

To questions on the West Bengal panchayat poll, Salim accused the Trinamool Congress of "goondaism," saying they were preventing other parties from filing nominations.

"While we have Mamata version of democracy in Bengal, we have the Modi version at the Centre," he said.

Commenting on the NDA decision that its MPs would not take the parliamentary allowance for the second part of this session, Salim said, "I express solidarity with those honest NDA MPs who belong to the economically weaker sections.... I, however, think it is a BJP decision thrust upon the NDA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)