Jairam Ramesh requests RS chairman to convene special House session

As the budget session came to an end amid acrimony, the Congress has sought a two-week session of Parliament after the Karnataka Assembly elections to discuss "burning political, social and economic" issues.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has urged Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to try and persuade the government to convene a special two-week session "sometime in late May or early June".

"There is no doubt that the complete washout has inflicted great damage to Parliament as an institution and I think a special session may help retrieve some of its lost prestige," Ramesh said in a letter dated April 6.

Though Ramesh said the letter was "purely" in his personal capacity, the Congress, too, endorsed his suggestion.

"l am aware that the monsoon session will be called sometime in mid-July but a special session sends a different signal altogether," Ramesh said.

The budget session of Parliament ended on Friday, with the BJP and the Congress blaming each other for the daily disruptions that saw the productivity of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha nose-dive dramatically.

According to the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, the productivity of the Lok Sabha was 4% and that of the Rajya Sabha 8%.

Naidu on Friday wondered if the House "could justify its existence and the resources spent on it".

The BJP sought to blame Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for the repeated disruptions in Parliament.

The Congress hit back asserting that the onus for running Parliament smoothly lay with the government.

It also accused the BJP of "orchestrating" disruptions by friendly political parties such as the TDP and the AIADMK to escape from being held accountable for the various scams under the watch of Modi.