The Narendra Modi government on Thursday made an unexpected announcement and called for a five-day special session of Parliament from September 18 to 22. The decision was announced by Union Minister Pralhad Joshi in a tweet. He, however, didn’t reveal the agenda for the special session. The Opposition leader reacted sharply and said they were not notified and came to know about the special session through the minister’s tweet.
“We have not been told anything officially on this. Usually, a bulletin is published or information is given on the phone. Don’t know what important situation has arisen that Parliament is being convened suddenly,” Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed the government’s move an “indication of panic”.
“I think maybe it is an indicator of a little panic. The same type of panic that happened when I spoke in Parliament House, the panic that suddenly made them revoke my Parliament membership,” the Congress leader said in a press conference in Mumbai ahead of the INDIA bloc’s meeting.
What could be Centre’s agenda for special session of Parliament?
Ever since the government made the announcement, the political circles of New Delhi started buzzing with speculations on the agenda of the five-day special session. One of the agenda that is being speculated is that the Modi government may dissolve the Parliament and call for early elections.
Earlier this week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had claimed that the Modi government will call for early elections as it is scared of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc. Another speculative agenda was that the government would bring three bills – ‘One Nation, One Election’, the Uniform Civil Code, and the women’s reservation in Parliament.
However, One Nation – One Election would need a constitutional amendment and then it would need to be taken to state assemblies.
According to news agency ANI, some of the speculative agenda items could be a discussion on the Centre’s recent achievements, including the G20 Leaders’ summit in Delhi and success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, under the second term of PM Modi coined as ‘Amrit Kaal’, a term used to denote a ‘Golden’ period of governance.