Govt cancelled winter session to avoid questions on its failures: CPI(M)

The CPI(M) Sunday hit out at the government for scrapping the winter session of Parliament over the Covid-19 situation, and said the pandemic is being used as an excuse by the Centre to avoid being held accountable on its "all round failures".

In a statement issued here after a meeting of its Politburo, the Left party also demanded the cancellation of the Central Vista project and said the money allocated for this purpose be used to provide "free food and cash transfers to our beleaguered people".

"The Politburo strongly denounced the unprecedented cancellation of the Winter Session of Parliament using the pretext of the Covid pandemic," it said.

The pandemic is not any problem for the BJP to organise its election campaign and rallies but it has chosen to "avoid being answerable to the parliament", it added.

"It is thus abandoning its constitutional responsibility of being accountable in the parliament."

The Centre has said there will be no Winter Session of Parliament this time because of the coronavirus crisis.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi conveyed the government's decision to Congress MP and its Leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury through a letter. Chowdhury had demanded a short winter session to discuss the three new farm laws, which have triggered protests across the country.

The CPI(M) statement added, "Clearly, the Modi government is escaping answering questions over its all-round failure in tackling the pandemic effectively and the economic recession while mercilessly attacking the livelihood of the people and destroying the rights of the working people and the peasantry. The people shall make the government answer."

The statement also questioned the need for the Central Vista project at a time when the country is battling a raging pandemic and demanded it be scrapped.

"Instead of using the available resources to feed our people and provide them with some means of livelihood, this central government is squandering our country's resources in constructing new buildings and the Central Vista including a new parliament. In the midst of this pandemic and mounting people's woes, the Prime Minister laid the foundation for the construction of the new parliament.

"The CPI (M) demands that this project of the Central Vista be scrapped. The money allocated for this must be transferred to provide free food and cash transfers to our beleaguered people," it said.

The party also reiterated its demand for the repeal of the three farm laws and hailed the protest of the farmers against them.

The Politburo also called on all its units to organise solidarity actions with the ongoing farm struggles demanding repeal of the agri laws.

It also asked its units to support the actions of the working class in the ongoing struggles against "large-scale privatisation" and to conduct a rigorous campaign against the "disinformation being unleashed by the central government on the ongoing people's struggles".