New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi attacked the government on the washout of the Monsoon Session. In an exclusive article to a national daily, she commented ‘The recently concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament displayed the disdain of the Narendra Modi government towards parliamentary processes and building consensus.
The Opposition was repeatedly denied an opportunity to raise issues of national importance — destructive farm laws, the use of military-grade software to hack into devices belonging to constitutional figures, political opponents, journalists and activists, runaway inflation and unemployment. Increasingly over the past seven years, laws have been passed without debate in the House or scrutiny by a committee, effectively turning Parliament into a rubber stamp.
Democratically elected state governments have been toppled, disrespecting people’s mandates. The media has been systematically intimidated and arm-twisted into forgetting its responsibility to speak truth to power. Institutions that were carefully built and nurtured to provide the structure of true democracy have been systematically degenerated or destroyed, eroding the values that give substance to the inalienable right of our people to equality, justice and individual freedom.”
