NEW DELHI: Declaring that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government was not confident about facing Parliament, the Left parties yesterday demanded that the monsoon session be convened immediately.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left parties, which recently withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over differences on the India-US civil nuclear deal, said the Congress leadership wanted to avoid Parliament till the deal went through the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG).
“Failure to maintain its majority in Parliament before that would jeopardize the nuclear deal with the United States. All this shows contempt for Parliament and willful disregard for democratic norms,” the four Left parties said in a joint statement.
“The Manmohan Singh government is afraid of facing Parliament,” the statement said, adding that the government had announced that the monsoon session would be convened from Aug. 11 to Sept. 5.
Meanwhile, with an eye to the general elections, the Congress is making a last-ditch effort to push the Women’s Reservation Bill, proposing a new formula to satisfy the demand for a “quota within quota” for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
According to party sources, the parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice, headed by senior Congress MP E.M. Sudarshana Natchiappan, which is studying the bill, has proposed that the issue of OBC quota could be left to the states.
The bill seeks to reserve 33 percent seats for women in parliament and legislative assemblies.
“(Congress President) Sonia Gandhi has asked the party leaders to evolve a consensus on the bill so that it can be passed by this government,” a Congress leader told IANS.
