17 December,2016 08:27 AM IST | | Agencies
The storm over the demonetisation issue virtually demolished the month-long Winter Session of Parliament which concluded yesterday as a washout with negligible business being transacted
Congress member Venugopal speaks in Lok Sabha. Pics/PTI
New Delhi: The storm over the demonetisation issue virtually demolished the month-long Winter Session of Parliament which concluded yesterday as a washout with negligible business being transacted.
Due to the repeated disruptions, Lok Sabha could function only for 15.75 per cent and lost 92 hours while Rajya Sabha worked for 20.61 per cent and lost about 86 hours.
The session hardly saw any legislative action except for the passage of the Rights of Persons with Disability Bill by both the Houses. Significantly, this legislation was cleared yesterday after a brief debate with a rare bonhomie, similar to the one witnessed in the Rajya Sabha on it two days back.
While adjourning the two Houses sine die, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari expressed pain and anguish over the repeated disruptions.
"The prohibition in the Rules about shouting slogans, displaying posters and obstructing proceedings by leaving their assigned places was consistently ignored by all sections of the House," Ansari said, adding that "peace prevailed only when obituaries were read".
'Indira ignored demonetisation'
Speaking at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, noting that the Wanchoo Committee in 1971 had recommended demonetisation, Modi said when then FM Y B Chavan told PM Indira Gandhi he supported the exercise, she asked, "Only one question. Are no elections to be fought by the Congress party?" "Tell me," Modi said, "if the party is bigger or the country," accusing Cong of putting its interests before the country's.
