On Parliament Session

Date: 
Thursday, October 23, 2008

Press Statement

 The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

 On Parliament Session

 The manner in which the Manmohan Singh government is treating parliament is shocking. First it refused to convene the Monsoon Session. It then announced that a “continued session” of the July 21-22 special trust vote session would be held from October 17 to November 21. Now, barely a week after the convening of parliament it is being adjourned again on October 24. This exposes the narrow partisan interests which dictated the indefinite postponement of the Monsoon Session and the doing away of the Winter Session.

This year parliament has been in session for less than forty days. This gross contempt for parliament is compounded by the refusal of the Prime Minister to honour his own commitment to seek parliamentary approval for the nuclear deal after the IAEA and NSG stages were completed.

 The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that the next session to be called in December should be a full-fledged Winter Session and not another farcical continuation of the July 21-22 session. Parliament will have to be adjourned sine die so that the Winter Session can be convened in December. The presiding officers have the duty to see that this travesty of parliamentary democracy is not perpetuated.

 In case the government does not convene a fresh session of parliament, the CPI(M) will consult with all other likeminded opposition parties to decide the course of action.