By IANS,
New Delhi : Declaring that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government was not confident about facing parliament, the Left parties Thursday demanded that the monsoon session be convened immediately.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left parties, which recently withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over differences on the India-US civil nuclear deal, said the Congress leadership wanted to avoid parliament till the deal went through the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG).
“Failure to maintain its majority in parliament before that would jeopardize the nuclear deal with the United States. All this shows contempt for parliament and wilful disregard for democratic norms,” the four Left parties said in a joint statement.
“The Manmohan Singh government is afraid of facing parliament,” the statement said, adding that the government had announced that the monsoon session would be convened from Aug 11 to Sep 5.
However, the government that won a trust motion during a specially convened two-day session on July 21 Wednesday said the session would begin only in the second week of September.
“The reason is clear. After having manipulated a majority by foul means, the government is not confident of facing parliament where its majority will be in question,” said the CPI-M, Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party of India and the Forward Bloc, pointing out that there were various issues awaiting the attention of parliament.