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Not enough MPs turn up, parliamentary external affairs panel meet called off
The 31-member panel is headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s PP Chaudhary was supposed to meet to discuss and adopt the draft report on “The Registration of Marriage of Non-Resident Indians Bill”.
A two-day sitting of the parliamentary standing committee dealing with external affairs was cancelled because not enough members of parliament turned up for the meetings, according to MPs that Hindustan Times spoke to. The physical meeting was scheduled at the Parliament’s annexe.
This comes just days after an official who attended last Tuesday’s public accounts committee meeting tested positive, leading to several MPs who attended the meeting having to quarantine themselves. Five MPs that Hindustan Times spoke to cited Covid-19 for their inability to attend the meeting.
The 31-member panel is headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s PP Chaudhary was supposed to meet to discuss and adopt the draft report on “The Registration of Marriage of Non-Resident Indians Bill”. However, at the scheduled time, only five MPs turned up at the annexe . Apart from the chairman, there was Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta, BJP’s Manoj Tiwari and Meenakshi Lekhi and TDP’s Jaydev Galla who travelled all the way from Telangana for the meeting that didn’t happen.
A Lok Sabha official said a panel meeting has to have at least a third of its members in attendance. “It was cancelled because it didn’t have the quorum which in this case was at least 10,’’ this person added on condition of anonymity. Ever since Parliament adjourned in March just before a lockdown was announced to fight the spread of the disease, parliamentary panel meetings were also suspended. They restarted last week.
Four Congress MPs that head parliamentary panels, Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and Adhir Chowdhury have all argued for these meetings to go online but there are security concerns stopping that from happening.
”I thought it was very safe,’’ said Dasgupta, explaining his decision to attend the meeting. “There was social distancing and the room in the Annexe is big enough for everyone to be accommodated with these restrictions.’’
But the BSP’s Ritesh Pandey disagreed: “I chose not to go,’’ he said speaking from Almora. “I told them that it was better to hold the meeting at a time when the (case) numbers were down.’’
While Pandey chose not to come, the Revolutionary Socialist Party’s member NK Premachandran had no choice. He was caught in the new lockdown in the Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. “He cannot travel out of the state due to travel restrictions,’’ said an aide who answered his phone. Adilabad MP Soyam Babu Rao said that a Covid awareness event in his constituency prevented him from attending the meeting.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many members had informed the secretariat or the chairman about their inability to attend the meeting.
‘I was all set to come but my driver’s mother died of covid. I stayed back because we had to get him tested. Fortunately, he tested negative,’ said BJP MP Poonam Mahajan.
‘‘I have children in my house,’ said RJD MP Misa Yadav, ‘I just didn’t think it was worth the risk. Maybe if they discussed something relevant like the India Nepal issue which is very important for me and my constituents but not some NRI marriage bill.’’
”I think the second lockdown in many places has created problems,’’ said Tiwari, ``However, we cannot have online meetings. Standing committees are secret and we cannot guarantee that if we move it online.’’
Jaydev Galla didn’t respond to HT’s queries, and a spokesperson for the Speaker Om Birla’s office said they would revert with a comment. While a monsoon session is expected before September, the demand for online attendance is only growing.
