Hyderabad : Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu Sunday said there was no proposal to cut short the ongoing parliament session, and added the government has enough business.
He said the government would bring important bills in the coming days and these include the Insurance Bill and the Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Bill.
“There is no proposal as of now to cut short the parliament session. The government is also working on judicial appointments bill and there are some more bills. We have enough business for parliament,” he told reporters here while rejecting opposition criticism that there is no business before parliament.
He said parliament had three holidays but since there was a day in between and the members expressed the view that it would be difficult to go to their constituencies and again return for a day, the presiding officers of both the house decided to have a four-day holiday.
The budget session of parliament, which began July 7, is scheduled to continue till Aug 14.
Naidu reiterated that granting Leader of Opposition post was not in the government’s purview and that the government will abide by the decision of the Lok Sabha Speaker.
He found fault with the Congress for criticizing the government, the speaker and the attorney general over the issue.
“The attorney general has given his opinion. The speaker will go through it and take a decision but even before the decision is taken, Congress is criticizing us. They are saying AG’s opinion is not worth the paper it is written on. It is unfair,” he said.
He took strong exception to Congress leader Anand Sharma’s allegation that the government is trying to pressurise the speaker.
“We don’t believe in pressurising anybody. It is unfair criticism. I am not here to decide. I have no problem either way. Whatever speaker decides, the government is ready to abide by it,” he said, adding the government had no problem when Ghulam Nabi Azad was recognized as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
Naidu wanted the Congress party to explain why it did not give Leader of Opposition post to the opposition during its rule when Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were the prime ministers.
On the Congress’ argument that the situation changed after Salary and Allowances of Leader of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977, he reminded the party that Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister after 1977 but he did not give Leader of Opposition post to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) though it was the largest opposition party with 31 members.