Forest amendment bill: Bhupender Yadav says Congress creating doubts in minds of people

Jairam Ramesh had questioned the move to send the Bill to a joint committee and demanded that it be examined by the standing committee, which he heads

Union Minister Bhupender Yadav Saturday slammed the Congress for protesting the decision to forward the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 to a joint committee, saying it is involved in a "nefarious project" to create doubts in people's minds about all democratic institutions and processes.

The environment minister also tweeted a short video listing bills that he claimed were referred to joint committees during the Congress rule.

"Jairam Ramesh says referring the Forest Conservation Amendment Bill to a Joint Committee is 'devaluation and denigration' of processes. Will serve him well to take a hard look at how many Bills introduced in Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha were sent by Cong govts to the Joint Committee (sic)," Yadav tweeted.

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"The Congress is involved in a nefarious project to create doubts in the minds of people regarding all democratic institutions and democratic processes. They are doing this in India and also on foreign soil. This is a dangerous trend and must stop," he said, in an apparent reference to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's lecture last month at the UK's Cambridge University that stoked a controversy.

Replying to the minister, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, "Standing Committees came into existence only on March 31, 1993. Better homework was expected of you Mantriji. (sic)"

Yadav replied that the detailed list of bills shared by him was a result of thorough homework and that the Congress kept referring bills to joint committees even after 1993. "The good thing about truth is, it won't change just because you or Cong turn a blind eye to it," he said.

The minister said due parliamentary process was followed in the case of the said Bill.

"Positive participation in this process is incumbent upon the Opposition. Criticism for the sake of criticism from the Opposition is not healthy for democracy," he added.

Yadav had introduced the amendment bill in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. It seeks to bring clarity to the country's forest conservation law and exempt certain categories of lands from its purview to fast-track strategic and security-related projects of national importance.

Ramesh had lodged a protest with Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar over the Bill being sent to a joint committee and demanded that it be examined by the standing committee, which he heads.

In a letter to Dhankhar, the Congress leader said sending the Bill to the joint committee of both Houses means "devaluation and denigration" of the status and functions of the standing committee.

Pointing out that the Bill was referred to a joint committee first in Lok Sabha and then in Rajya Sabha, Ramesh said the legislation falls fairly and squarely in the domain of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

Noting that this is one of the eight committees of Rajya Sabha, Ramesh sought Dhankhar's urgent intervention to prevent its "complete emasculation".

According to the government, the Bill seeks to clarify the scope of applicability of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, on various lands. It seeks to broaden the horizons of the Act, keeping in view India's aim to increase forest cover for the creation of a carbon sink of additional 2.5-3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent by 2030.

It also proposes to exempt certain categories of lands from the purview of the Act to fast-track strategic and security-related projects of national importance, to provide access to small establishments, and habitations on the side of public roads and railways, and to encourage plantation on non-forest land.