Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi announced an all-party meeting of Parliamentary floor leaders on September 17, on the eve of the Special Session scheduled to be held from September 18 to 22.
The Opposition parties continued to criticise the government for keeping them in the dark about the agenda for the session. Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said that only two people know about the agenda. “Today is September 13. The five-day special session of Parliament will commence five days from now and nobody barring one man (okay, perhaps the Other One too) -- has any sense of the agenda,” Mr. Ramesh said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
He also listed out the previous special sessions that were called, stating that the agenda for each of these was known beforehand.
These included the November 26, 2019 special sitting in the Central hall to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Constitution, the joint special session held at midnight on June 30, 2017 to roll out the GST regime, and the special sitting held for the Constitution Day on November 26 and 27, 2015. On May 13, 2012, a special session was held to mark the 60th anniversary of the first sittings of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha; on July 22, 2008, a session of the Lok Sabha was held to conduct a trust vote after the Left parties withdrew support from the Congress-led UPA-1 government; on June 3 and 4, 1991, a session was held to approve President’s Rule in Haryana, under the proviso to Article 356(3); and from February 29 to March 1, 1977, a special session of the Rajya Sabha was held to extend President’s Rule in Tamil Nadu and Nagaland.
The Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha Parliamentary party leader Derek O’ Brien also said, “Two working days are to go before the special Parliament session begins, still there is no word on agenda. Only two people know and we still call ourselves a Parliamentary democracy!”
