Parliament special session from September 18 to 22
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, August 31
The government on Thursday announced its decision to hold a special session of Parliament from September 18 to 22, catching the Opposition unawares.
“The special session of Parliament — the 13th session of the 17th Lok Sabha and the 261st session of the Rajya Sabha — is being called from September 18 to 22 and will have five sittings. Amid Amrit Kaal, looking forward to fruitful discussions and debate in Parliament,” Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi announced on X, formerly Twitter, prompting the Opposition to question the timing of the announcement — on the same day as 28 INDIA grouping parties commenced their two-day meeting in Mumbai.
Government tightlipped
- Amid Amrit Kaal, looking forward to fruitful discussions, says minister
- Oppositionclueless about agenda, government tightlipped
Not the first time
Aug 1992 50th anniversary of Quit India Movement
1997 Golden jubilee of India’s Independence
NOV 2015 125th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar
June 2017 GST rollout
“This is all about managing the news cycle, Modi style. News today has been dominated by the latest revelations on the ‘Modani’ scam. Tomorrow the ever-growing INDIA parties meet in Mumbai. How to counter? So announce a five-day special session of Parliament when the monsoon session has just ended three weeks ago. Regardless, the demand for a JPC probe into Adani issue will continue to resonate inside and outside Parliament,” Congress chief whip in the RS Jairam Ramesh said.
The NCP and the Shiv Sena (UBT) demanded rescheduling of the session citing its clash with the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.
The government may take the occasion to inform Parliament about the outcomes of the G20 presidency of India, which will conclude with the Leaders’ Summit on September 9 and 10. In an election year, it will serve the government well to project PM Narendra Modi’s global image and successes by projecting the Indian presidency of the influential grouping as historic.
The Union Government may also initiate a resolution on India at 2047 and place it for debate before Parliament, according to sources, who qualified their surmise saying: “The actual agenda is in the womb of the future. We can only guess given the timing.”
Most ruling party sources dismissed possibilities of Bills being brought on the Uniform Civil Code or “one nation, one election” despite frenzied speculation on the subject all day.
Some sources did not, however, rule out forward movement on the Women’s Quota Bill in this poll year with several INDIA grouping parties like the RJD opposed to the law. One nation, one election, backed by the parliamentary committee, currently stands referred to the Law Commission. Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had himself cited impediments to the move in the just concluded monsoon session where he had said that at least five Articles of the Constitution would have to be amended for the move, which would save a lot of time and money.
Amit Shah to kickstart Kalash Yatra today
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will on Friday kickstart the Amrit Kalash Yatra, which aims to fill 75,000 urns across India with soil from all villages and develop a garden called Amrit Vatika in Delhi with that soil. The campaign is part of the ongoing “Meri Maati Mera Desh” campaign, which marks the culmination of Amrit Mahotsav, the celebration of the 75th year of Independence
