Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu took serious note on Friday of the absence of several ministers from parliamentary proceedings, saying some of them were taking it casually and it won’t be allowed in the future.Naidu said that ministers will have to take permission from the Chair before skipping parliamentary proceedings.
Opposition leaders slammed the government over ministers missing from parliamentary proceedings. After Naidu’s statement, CPI(M) lawmaker John Brittas said “they (ministers) have no respect for the Parliament”, to which Naidu replied, “This applies to all the people who do not respect the Parliament and the Chair.”
Speaking to HT, Brittas said, “The ministers are taking cues from the Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] and the home minister [Amit Shah]. The PM has spent very little time in Parliament. During the last monsoon session, he must have attended the Parliament for an hour. Earlier, there were times when the PM used to sit through the debates.”
He pointed out that recently the Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned for 15 minutes because Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya was not around. “It was not an impromptu discussion. It was a short notice discussion on Omicron, but the minister was absent. The deputy chairman had to adjourn the House for 15 minutes for the minister to come to the Parliament.”
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