BJP murdering Parliament, session after session: Derek O'Brien

New Delhi: As the government and the opposition reached an agreement on ending the impasse in Parliament, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien on Monday lashed out at the BJP, blaming the ruling party for the repeated adjournments in the two Houses. "BJP is murdering Parliament, session after session," the TMC's Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Party leader said.

On Monday, Speaker Om Birla held a meeting with floor leaders of different parties in Lok Sabha, after which Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju expressed confidence that both Houses will resume functioning from Tuesday.

O'Brien, however, held the government responsible for the two Houses not being able to transact much business so far in this session.


"We feel the government is deliberately running away from a discussion. Both Houses were being adjourned within a few minutes," O'Brien told reporters.

"The prime minister has yet not answered a question on the floor of the House... No notices by the opposition have been accepted since November 2016," he said, citing various complaints from the opposition.

"There is no deputy leader in Lok Sabha; out of 221 bills passed by 17th Lok sabha, a third of bills were passed in less than 60 minutes," he added.

The Trinamool Congress, which has distanced itself from the Adani issue being raised by Congress, has maintained that it wants Parliament to function to raise 'people's issues' like "deprivation of central funds to West Bengal, Manipur crisis, and Aparajita bill passed by West Bengal assembly, along with issues like inflation, unemployment and fertilizer shortage".

A Trinamool Congress source said they had extended support to the SP MPs in Lok Sabha on Monday morning as they were demanding a debate on the survey of a mosque, and violence that erupted in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh.

The government and opposition parties reached an agreement on Monday to break the impasse in Parliament with the dates announced for a discussion on the Constitution, to mark its 75th year of adoption, in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

While maintaining that it remains a part of the INDIA bloc, TMC has said it will raise "people's issues" as decided at a meeting of the party's working committee, chaired by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.