Left unhappy with timing of Parliament session

LEFT UNHAPPY: Sitaram Yechury criticised the Government's decision to delay the session.

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New Delhi: Left parties on Tuesday charged the UPA Government with subverting Indian democracy by dovetailing the Parliament session with that of the US Congress in the hope that the Indo-US nuclear deal would be passed.

Attacking the Government's decision to delay the session, senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told PTI, "It is subversion of parliamentary democracy in India as it is clear that the session is being dovetailed with the time-table of the US Congress.

"The Government hopes the US Congress will clear the nuclear deal and wants to face Parliament only after that happens."

The Monsoon Session of Parliament was earlier slated to begin on August 11. The Government on Wednesday decided to have the session from October 17 till November 21.

Maintaining that it was "extremely unfortunate and callous" to ignore the basic problems of the people, Yechury said "this subversion of our democratic process comes at a time when very pressing issues like uncontrollable inflation, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, communal polarisation in Orissa and happenings in Assam and the northeast need urgent attention."

"All these issues should have been debated urgently but the whole process has now been subverted," he said.

Attacking the Government for delaying the session, RSP leader Abani Roy said the timing showed that the Government wanted to "minimise the session this way or that way. Business will not be carried out on a number of days as there are several festivals during the period."

Both Roy and Forward Bloc leader G Devarajan said it was clear that the delay in convening the session was to ensure that the nuclear deal was passed in the US Congress.