New Delhi: The CPI(M) on Thursday demanded a
constitutional amendment to ensure that Parliament runs for at
least 100 days a year even if there was no legislative
business so as to make the Government "accountable to the
people".
"Government's stand that there is no need to have more
sittings of Parliament because there is no legislative
business amounts to abdicating its constitutional
responsibility. Besides making laws, Parliament raises issues
of public importance and maintains vigil on the Executive,"
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said at a press conference here.
Observing that people's will was exercised through the
elected representatives in the Legislature to which the
Executive was accountable, he said "if Parliament does not
meet often, the government gets away without being accountable
to the people."
He said CPI(M) would raise the demand in both Houses of
Parliament for a constitutional amendment to ensure at least
100 sittings every calendar year.
Yechury said the British Parliament was mandated to hold a
minimum of 160 sittings every year and there were nearly 200
sittings on an average. "But here we had only 46 sittings last
year. This is serious undermining of the Constitution."
Sino-American statement on Indo-Pak ties opposed
The CPI(M) today strongly opposed
any third-party intervention in Indo-Pak relations, saying the
United States and China could decide on their bilateral
relations without involving New Delhi and Islamabad.
"There is absolutely no scope or need for any third-party
intervention in India's bilateral relations with Pakistan,"
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.
The US and China could decide whatever they wanted on
their bilateral ties, "but it should not involve us. Indo-Pak
relations are bilateral relations and there should be no
third-party interference," he said.
Yechury said India's response to the joint statement,
issued at the conclusion of talks between US President Barack
Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, was positive but
it came "24 hours late".
Upset over the reference to the Indo-Pak ties in US-China
statement, India has made it clear that it will not brook any
third party role in bilateral matters even as the US sought to
give a positive spin to it.
"A third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it
necessary," an External Affairs Ministry Spokesman had said in
a terse comment yesterday.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 20:32