7 TMC MPs, 1 BJP MP won't attend Parliament, Sonia may skip it too

Despite several rounds of review meetings and even more detailed Covid19 protocols to be in place in Parliament as it resumes this Monday there will be a number of MPs who will skip it regardless While many of them are worried about their age and the governments suggestion of staying indoors for those with comorbidities others are battling Covid or have simply come out of it or other diseases that make them vulnerableBJPs Belagavi MP and Union junior minister for Railways Suresh Angadi will definitely give the monsoon session a miss as he has tested Covidpositive Though he says he continues to remain fine and asymptomatic attending the House is out of question for the MinisterLok Sabha MPs to mark attendance through mobile app during monsoon session amid COVID19Meanwhile Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik was on Saturday discharged from a Panaji hospital after being admitted for the same deadly virus for a month In fact his situation turned serious following which a central team from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences was monitoring his health However its very unlikely the 67yearold minister will attend the parliament sessionMeanwhile at least seven Trinamool Congress MPs including its Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha Shukhendu Sekhar Roy have decided to give the monsoon session a miss I wrote to the House Chairman informing that I will not be attending this session primarily due to two reasons my age and the order of the Home Secretary during unlock asking people above 65 years of age to stay indoors which I have enclosed As lawmakers we cannot be lawbreakers Roy told IANSAccording to Roy at least 3 TMC MPs in the Lok Sabha and 4 in the Rajya Sabha including him have decided not to attend this monsoon session Roy claims In the Lok Sabha TMCs Kolkata North MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay Kanthi MP Shishir Adhikari and Mathurapur MP Chowdhury Mohan Jatua will also skip the session While Bandyopadhyay is 67 years old Adhikari and Jatua are 78 years and 82 years old respectively putting all of them under vulnerable categoriesCOVID19 test report mandatory to enter Parliament during sessionSpeaking to IANS Adhikari confirmedYes that is correct I am not attending Parliament this time My age doesnt permit me to at the time of a pandemicSimilarly in the upper house Roy claims he who is also the Trinamool Congresss Chief Whip along with other 3 TMC members have decided not to attend The other three are Subrata Bakshi Manas Bhuiyan and Subhasish Chakraborty However Roy adds that there is no party diktat but it was a joint decision by the concerned membersWhile there is no confirmation of whether they will attend or not there are a lot of ailing members or those recuperating who definitely fall under the category of being vulnerableSources have told IANS that Congress President Sonia Gandhi is likely to fly out abroad for availing medical treatments Also a BJP Rajya Sabha member who is still recuperating from his cancer treatment was advised to stay indoors by his doctors way before India came to learn the term quarantineHowever sources say two Congress seniors 87yearold former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as 79yearold AK Antony are very likely to attend the monsoon session despite their ageShukhendu Shekhar Roy said a lot of this absenteeism could have been avoided had the government shifted the Parliament session to a larger space such as the Talkatora Stadium The government talks of do gaj ki doori keeping a distance of two yards If the session was arranged at Talkatora Stadium there would be das gaj ki doori a distance of 10 yards But here we are having the monsoon session in the Parliament building Roy told IANS He also warned about the risk it puts the attending members in given the vast numbers of drivers secretariat staff security officers who will also be in the same spaceInterestingly on the very first day this session the upper House will see a strong fight for the post of the Deputy chairperson RJD leader Manoj Jha is backed by opposition parties as NDA propped up JDUs Harivansh Narayan Singh With the BJP already issuing a threeline whip to all its Rajya Sabha members to be present on Monday it remains to be seen how the first Parliament session after the pandemic worksCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever