JOIN US'BJP diluting environment and forest laws,' says Jairam Ramesh
Accusing the Modi government of pursuing an agenda of diluting environment and forest laws by viewing it as “regulatory burdens”, senior Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Saturday claimed that the ruling BJP is sending contentious bills to a joint committee headed by a BJP MP rather than to a Standing Committee headed by Opposition lawmakers.
Ramesh was referring to the government sending the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 to a Joint Committee of Parliament and not to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, which has the mandate to scrutinise such legislations. He heads the Standing Committee.
The Congress Rajya Sabha Chief Whip and party’s General Secretary (Communications), who earlier wrote to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar against the government move, also countered Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav’s claim that Congress governments sent a large number of Bills to Joint Committee.
Sharing a clip that showed 254 such Bills from 1952 that were sent to Joint Committees, Yadav tweeted, "Jairam Ramesh says referring the Forest Conservation Amendment Bill to a Joint Committee is 'devaluation and denigration' of processes. (It) will serve him well to take a hard look at how many Bills introduced in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were sent by the Congress government to the Joint Committee.”
“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,”
Ramesh immediately countered him, “Standing Committees came into existence only on March 31 1993. Better homework was expected of you Mantri-ji.”
The detailed list is a result of thorough home work, Jairam ji.
— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) April 1, 2023
If you make the effort to look closely, you’d know Congress kept referring Bills to Joint Committees even post 1993.
The good thing about truth is, it won’t change just because you or Cong turn a blind eye to it. https://t.co/c9WiWGAwcL
According to the data provided by Yadav, Lok Sabha sent 14 Bills and Rajya Sabha one to Joint Committees since the Department Related Standing Committees were put in place. Of this, eight were referred between 1993 and 2004 while one was referred during the 10-year UPA rule. Since 2014, six Bills have been referred to Joint Committees.
Addressing a press conference, Ramesh said the Biological Diversity Bill 2021 was not sent to the Standing Committee but to a Joint Committee. The Joint Committee would mean a BJP MP will be its Chairperson and they could decide on the tone of the report, he alleged.
“There is an agenda to target and weaken all environment and forest laws because the Niti Ayog and the government view these laws as regulatory burdens. They do not look up to it as societal obligations. That is the fundamental difference,” he said.
Besides Ramesh, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Congress MP Manish Tewari have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla protesting against the government sending the Forest (Conservation) Bill to a Joint Committee.
Ramesh said the government had similarly sent the Data Protection Bill to a Joint Committee instead of sending it to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
He also alleged that the government’s move was identical to the move to identify certain bills as money bills and get a smooth passage. (ENDS)