Govt walked extra mile to make Parliament 'redundant': Congress MP Manish Tewari

New Delhi [India]: Congress MP Manish Tewari on Monday said the government has gone to great lengths to make Parliament ineffective. He added that it is the government's responsibility to run the House, but if it refuses, nothing can be done. Speaking to the reporters, Tewari said, "It is the job of the government to run the House, and if it is obdurate, nothing can be done. The government has walked an extra mile to ensure that the supreme legislative institution in the country becomes redundant."

The Congress leader said the Opposition was not allowed to raise serious issues in Parliament, including the Indo-US trade framework, a US executive order on Russian oil, and the suspension of MPs, all of which have strategic and policy implications.

"There are very serious issues confronting the country, the purported joint statement on the Indo-US trade framework, the executive order by the US President, which says that we have committed not to buy oil from Russia. All of this has strategic implications for the autonomy and our conduct of foreign and economic policy. There is the issue of MPs being suspended, and the opposition wanted to articulate a lot of these issues, but it was not allowed to do so," he said.

Lok Sabha continued to see repeated disruptions by the Opposition benches as they demanded a discussion on the India-US trade framework in Parliament today.

For the second time in a row this morning, Parliament saw less than 10 minutes of the session and no discussion took place before being adjourned.

The Opposition MPs are planning to move a no-confidence motion against Speaker Om Birla in the second half of the budget session This comes in the backdrop of the Opposition alleging that the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, was not allowed to speak in the House during the discussion on the motion of Thanks to the President's Address.