New Delhi: Parliament’s monsoon session, scheduled to begin in the second week of September, maybe a
truncated one with rigorous social distancing requirements in place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is very likely that the usual month-long session could be curtailed to 10-14 days with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) faced with the task of dispelling perceptions that the government was shying away from discussing major issues on the floor of the two Houses.
“The biggest challenge for the union government is to hold a Parliament session when the number of cases of COVID-19 is increasing and in a way, it is a challenge for all political parties also to hold a Parliament session under such difficult situation. We are expecting that the monsoon session could be for 10 working days and not for the usual month-long,” said a senior leader of NDA aware of the development.
The BJP-NDA combine expects opposition parties to seek to raise issues related to the standoff between
India and China in Ladakh, the PM Cares Fund controversy, the problem of migrant workers during the
COVID-19 lockdown, the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the state of the economy, and the recent
controversy over Facebook and the use of social media, according to people aware of the development.
“The focus of NDA would be the passage of ordinances, especially related to agriculture and those that have been brought during the lockdown,” the NDA leader said.
Senior leaders of the opposition said the union government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial assistance to the states, economic slowdown, temporary suspension of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) fund and the push for One Nation, One Agriculture market could be some of the key issues that can be taken up. They added that it could be difficult to raise issues unitedly on the floor of the House because the seating will be more spread out to take care of social distancing norms.
A week ago, the Rajya Sabha secretariat released broad guidelines on holding of the session which includes staggered timings of both the Houses, spaced out seating spread to different galleries, large display screens and special cables connecting the two Houses for transmission of audio-visual signals being considered. In-person meetings of parliamentary committees are already taking place for over a month now.