Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and the speaker of the Lok Sabha, Om Birla have been rejecting calls from the opposition parties as well as some parties that support Narendra Modi’s government. They have refused to allow the parliamentary committees to function virtually due to the pandemic. With legislative works at a pause, the leading officers of the two houses of the parliament have rejected the requests to allow virtual meetings stating technicality and confidentiality causes.
A note from the Rajya Sabha secretariat stated that both the officers suggested that the meetings should take place physically, once the situation returns back to normal or it will take for an amendment in the rules. The move made the opposition parties upset as they questioned on how the construction of a new parliament house is considered as an essential activity but overseeing the legislative council is not.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted,”I am not surprised. In spite of repeated requests for almost a year, virtual meetings of Standing Committees have been inexplicably disallowed. The PM has all his meetings virtually, but 30 odd MPs cannot. Nowhere in the world has Parliament run away from its duties like in India”.
I am not surprised. In spite of repeated requests for almost a year, virtual meetings of Standing Committees have been inexplicably disallowed. The PM has all his meetings virtually, but 30 odd MPs cannot. Nowhere in the world has Parliament run away from its duties like in India https://t.co/AZnw9Ilyvl
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 14, 2021
Every other country across the world has now given permission to its legislature to function virtually through video conferencing.
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