Special session of Parliament to begin on Monday: What’s in store?
The suspense is finally over. After over a week of discussions, deliberations and speculation about the agenda for calling a special session of Parliament – beginning on 18 September – the Centre has finally revealed what’s in store.
Incidentally, the schedule for the special session came just hours after the government called for an all-party meeting on 17 September. Earlier, the Opposition had slammed the Centre for calling a special session of Parliament but not outlining a programme for it. The Congress’ Jairam Ramesh had earlier written on X, “Today is September 13. The five-day special session of Parliament will commence five days from now and nobody – barring One Man (ok, perhaps the Other One too) – has any sense of the agenda.”
His views were also echoed by Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien, who wrote on the social media site: “Two working days to go before the Special Parliament Session begins and still not a word on the agenda. Only two people (seen as a reference to the PM and Union Home Minister Amit Shah) know! And we still call ourselves a parliamentary democracy.”
So, what’s in store for the five-day special session of Parliament? Is it about changing India’s name to Bharat? Not really… Read on to find out more.
History of Parliament
As per a bulletin issued by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the first day of the special session – 18 September – will be reserved to have a discussion on the parliamentary journey of 75 years starting from the Constituent Assembly. The discussion will include achievements, experiences, memories and learnings in the 75 years of the parliamentary journey.
“Members are informed that on Monday, the 18th September, 2023, besides other formal business like laying of papers etc, a discussion will be held on the subject “Parliamentary Journey of 75 years starting from Samvidhan Sabha – Achievements, Experiences, Memories and Learnings”,” the bulletin read.
This is significant, given that the government has previously hinted that proceedings would shift from the old Parliament building to the new one during the session. There have been multiple reports that while the first day of the session will be held in the old building, the remaining part of the session will be held in the new building that was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28 May.
Also read: How new Parliament is readying for special session
Moreover, with a new building, the Parliament staff has also been given new uniforms – with an Indian touch. According to officials, the new uniforms will include Manipuri headgear for the marshals of the two Houses, and shirts with lotus motif (which also adorns the carpets in the Rajya Sabha in the new building) for officers in the table office, notice office and parliamentary reporting sections. All women officers will get sarees with new designs.
Bills to pass
Apart from the discussion on the history of Parliament, the bulletin has also listed tentative legislative business expected to be taken up during the upcoming session of the Parliament. The tentative list includes The Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and The Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023 to be taken up in the Lok Sabha.
And the Upper House will take up The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023 and the Post Office Bill, 2023.
Of these four, the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill has been highly contentious, with the Opposition suggesting that the government was trying to control the functioning of all independent institutions.
It was introduced in the previous monsoon session of Parliament despite loud calls against it from the Opposition benches. For the unaware, the new bill seeks to replace the current method of appointing the Chief Election Commissioner with a selection committee headed by the prime minister, which will have one Union minister, also nominated by the prime minister, and the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) as its members.
The Opposition has argued that by bringing in the Election Commission under the political ambit it would lose its objectivity. The Congress had slammed the legislation, calling it a “blatant attempt at making the Election Commission a total puppet in the hands of the PM”.
Surprisingly, the Centre made no mention of bills on the issues of ‘One Nation, One Poll’, or Uniform Civil Code or even Women’s reservation, as had been speculated earlier. There has also been no mention of changing the country’s name from India to Bharat – fuelled by repeated use of “Bharat” in multiple official communications during the recently-concluded G20 Summit in New Delhi.
Also read: From India to Bharat: A brief history of the many names of the country
However, some Opposition leaders are wary, with a few of them being quoted as telling Indian Express that there could still be some surprises, and “something more substantive”, over the five days of the session.
Congress’ Jairam Ramesh commenting on the agenda said on X, “The agenda as published at the moment, is much ado about nothing – all this could have waited till Winter session in November. I am sure the legislative grenades are being kept up their sleeves to be unleashed at the last moment as usual.”
Derek O’Brien said the ‘not to be taken as exhaustive’ caveat in the bulletin raised questions and wondered if the government was up to some “dirty tricks”.
Earlier speculation and rumours
The listed agenda puts an end to the swirling rumours as to why the Centre has convened a special session of Parliament.
Earlier on, many believed that it was the government’s way to push the legislation on ‘One Nation, One Election’ – an idea that is largely supported by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There has also been conjecture that the Centre had convened this session to push the Uniform Civil Code – an issue on the BJP’s manifesto for many years.
Another rumour was that the Modi government wanted to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill, which is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated emphasis on Naari Shakti.
However, the one issue that had perhaps got the most attention was that the Modi Sarkar wanted to change the name of India to Bharat – in line with the government’s move of moving away from its colonial past and reclaiming its legacy and prestige. The issue had got further impetus during the G20 Summit when invitations and formal communiqué showed the name Bharat instead of India.
With inputs from agencies
from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/VDIJrps
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