CPI(M) blames Congress for disruptions in Parliament

The CPI(M) today blamed the Congress for disruption of Parliament proceedings for several days, saying normal functioning was seen by the ruling party as a "hindrance" as it did not have majority in both houses on its own.

"The truth is that the ruling Congress party and the UPA government are unwilling to abide by the tenets of parliamentary democracy," party General Secretary Prakash Karat has said.

In an article in the forthcoming issue of party organ 'People's Democracy', he said normal democratic functioning of Parliament is seen as a hindrance because the Congress does not have a secured majority in both houses on its own.

Referring to the recent Cabinet decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail which was later put on hold, he said the government "refused" to accept the opposition demand for a debate in Parliament under rules that entailed voting.

Though it was for the speaker to admit an adjournment motion, "it is well known that this depends on the attitude of the government" which "was not willing to face any motion that would censure it. That is why Parliament got stalled," he said.

Karat said the lack of a stable majority in Lok Sabha was the reason behind all the deadlock witnessed in Parliament in the past two years.

The "refusal" to accept an adjournment motion on price rise or a voting resolution on it led to disruption of the House on two occasions, while similar "refusal" to set up a joint parliamentary committee on 2G Spectrum scam disrupted the entire Winter Session.

Despite its "precarious and uncertain majority" in Lok Sabha, the UPA wanted to push through neo-liberal policies by "undermining" parliamentary norms, he said, noting that the number of average sittings declined from 100 in the 1980s to below 50 in the past two years.