TMC leaders absent after plea for online meetings ignored

A TMC lawmaker was in Delhi on Tuesday but chose not to go for the meeting of a committee he is a member of. Another TMC member skipped a key meeting of a separate panel last week even as many Opposition members wanted her to attend it.

Lawmakers from West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has 22 members in Lok Sabha and 13 in Rajya Sabha, have been skipping all parliamentary standing committee meetings after their repeated appeals for online attendance were ignored.

Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressing through virtual meeting in Kolkata. (ANI)

Banerjee asked her lawmakers to avoid them citing health issues when two senior lawmakers referred to the resumption of meetings of parliamentary panels amid the Covid-19 pandemic, people aware of the matter said.

A TMC lawmaker was in Delhi on Tuesday but chose not to go for the meeting of a committee he is a member of. Another TMC member skipped a key meeting of a separate panel last week even as many Opposition members wanted her to attend it.

TMC’s Rajya Sabha floor leader, Derek O’Brien, said they were not attending the meetings as it is an issue of principle. “When they can hold several other meetings online, why cannot they hold House panel meetings digitally too?” he asked.

Several Opposition leaders have been asking Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to allow online meetings of parliamentary panels. But House officials maintain such meetings were not immediately possible online as they involve a change of rules and secrecy issues.