Opposition parties accuse Centre of 'derailing' Parliament session; issue joint statement

After the Parliament Session came to an end two days before schedule, 15 opposition leaders issued a joint statement on Thursday accusing the Centre of derailing the proceedings. The signatories to the statement are Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of Congress, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, SP's Ramgopal Yadav, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, DMK's Tiruchi Siva and TR Baalu, RJD MP Manoj Jha, Elamaram Kareem of CPI(M), IUML's ET Basheer, CPI's Binoy Viswam, RSP's NK Premachandran and Thomas Chazhikadan of Kerala Congress (M). Condemning the Centre's alleged "authoritarian attitude", they reiterated their commitment to raise issues of national importance.

As per the opposition, they had proposed to discuss 4 key issues- the Pegasus 'snooping' row, farmers' agitation against the agrarian laws, inflation and the deteriorating economic situation in the Parliament. It added, "It has become abundantly clear that the present government does not believe in parliamentary accountability and was running away from debate on Pegasus which resulted in a deadlock. The opposition had been repeatedly requested the government to sincerely engage with the opposition parties to break the impasse, but the government remained arrogant, insincere and obdurate".

Moreover, the leaders accused the Centre of using its "brute majority" to push through its agenda in violation of the spirit of parliamentary democracy. The statement mentioned that the Union government was unfairly blaming the opposition for disrupting the Parliament to divert attention from its own conduct. It also condemned the alleged manhandling of women parliamentarians in Rajya Sabha on August 11. 

Here is the joint statement: 

End of Parliament session

Since the commencement of the Monsoon Session on July 19, Parliament has been marked by sloganeering, leaders rushing to the Well of the House with placards, tearing of papers, and repeated adjournments. The opposition blamed the stubborn attitude of the treasury benches for the logjam, insisting on discussing the Pegasus 'snooping' row followed by the farm laws and inflation. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have adjourned sine dine on Wednesday owing to the obstructionism of the opposition.

The productivity of the Lower House and Upper House was 21% and 28% respectively. Rajya Sabha in particular saw chaotic scenes with 7 TMC MPs- Santanu Sen, Dola Sen, Md. Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Shanta Chhetri, Arpita Ghosh and Mausam Noor being suspended during the course of the Session. The final day also witnessed pandemonium with the opposition alleging that marshals had manhandled two women MPs. However, the Centre rubbished these allegations and demanded strict action against MPs who purportedly indulged in hooliganism.