Cong claims that the specified official business might have been postponed until the winter session

The Congress has questioned the need for calling the session, stating that these Bills could have waited until the Winter Session, and has added that it will oppose the CEC Bill in Parliament, despite the government having released the agenda for the five-day Special Session of Parliament with a focus on four Bills.

Jairam Ramesh, the general secretary and in-charge of communications for the Congress, was the first to criticize the government shortly after it released the schedule for the extraordinary session on Wednesday.

Ramesh said on X, “Finally, after pressure from Sonia Gandhi’s letter to the Prime Minister, the Modi government has condescended to announce the agenda for the special 5-day session of Parliament beginning September 18.”

He said that the agenda as it was released was unnecessary fuss that might have been put off until the winter session in November.

Legislative grenades are undoubtedly being held in reserve to be thrown as usual at the last minute. The phrase “something is going on behind the scenes” is used. However, the INDIA parties would vehemently resist the pernicious CEC Bill, according to Ramesh, a Rajya Sabha MP.

Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Congress in parliament, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week to request that the special session of Parliament’s agenda be made public to all parties. She outlined nine topics for discussion, including the need for a joint parliamentary committee, caste surveys, the Manipur issue, the rise in intergroup tension in various states like Haryana, China’s continued occupation of Indian territory, and threats to our sovereignty at our borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

“A caste census is urgently needed. Relationships between the Center and the State are being hurt. She had said that the effects of natural catastrophes brought on by excessive flooding in certain places and drought in others.

“Parliamentary Journey of 75 years starting from Samvidhan Sabha – Achievements, Experiences, Memories, and Learnings” is the topic of a debate that the Center has scheduled for the Lok Sabha’s special session. The government’s “tentative” legislative agenda also includes the hotly contested Bill on the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners. The Rajya Sabha first heard about the bill during the Monsoon session.

The Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023, The Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023, and The Post Office Bill, 2023 are a few of the other bills that will be discussed in Parliament during the special session.

In the meanwhile, a source for the Congress, who is presently in Hyderabad for a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), indicated that the party would bring up a number of problems during the next Parliamentary session.

He declared that the party would oppose the government’s Bill governing the appointment, terms of service, and terms of office of the Chief Election Commissioner and the other Election Commissioners, who will be chosen by the President on the recommendation of a committee made up of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, and a Union cabinet minister of their choice.

The source said that if this measure becomes law, the Congress and the opposition feel it would have an impact on the Election Commission’s autonomy and that it will become more like a government election commission as opposed to being independent.

The Election Commission, according to the source, is the last independent organization to hold free and democratic elections in India.

The source cited a Supreme Court Constitution Bench decision that said unequivocally that the country’s democracy cannot continue if the Election Commission is not impartial.

In order to ensure balance, a three-person panel composed of the Chief Justice, Prime Minister, and Leader of the Opposition was established to nominate the Chief Election Commissioner, he said.

And if the Bill is approved by Parliament, the Election Commission’s autonomy and independence would be terminated, he said.

On August 10, the Centre introduced a new bill in the Rajya Sabha that aimed to essentially overturn a Supreme Court decision that had stripped the executive of its exclusive authority to choose the CEC and ECs by adding the Chief Justice of India on the selection committee.

The selection committee, which would include the Prime member, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP), and a cabinet member the Prime Minister would propose, would make recommendations to the President who would then approve the appointments.

The CEC and the ECs shall be appointed by a panel made up of the Prime Minister, the LoP (or the leader of the single biggest Opposition party in Parliament), and the CJI until Parliament approves a statute on appointments, according to a Constitution court ruling on March 2.

When questioned about how the grand old party would use the special session of Parliament, the source stated that the party would bring up important public issues like inflation, which has been hurting the poor and middle class, as well as the very grim problem of unemployment and the ongoing violence in Manipur.

According to the source, the government is far from the reality because there are issues with inflation, unemployment, violence in various parts of the country, corruption, China occupying our land, etc., and the opposition plans to corner the government on these. This was in response to a question about how it plans to deal with the government over its public relations blitz on the G20 Summit.

The insider further said that while the administration may have certain unstated covert agendas, the party and parliamentarians from the INDIA group would deal with them.