The Centre has convened a meeting of the floor leaders of all political parties on September 17, a day before the scheduled start of the five-day Special Session of Parliament, Pralhad Joshi, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, informed on Wednesday.
There is still no clarity on what will be the agenda for the Special Session of Parliament slated to commence on September 18. Indications are that the likely agenda will be shared with the floor leaders of all Parties on September 17.
“Ahead of the Parliament session from 18th of this month, an all-party floor leaders meeting has been convened on the 17th at 4.30 PM. The invitation for the same has been sent to concerned leaders through email. Letter to follow”, Joshi posted on X (formerly Twitter).
While the exact reason for calling the Special Session is still not known, speculation is rife that the meeting would see the Government discussing recent success stories such as the G20 Summit’s Delhi Declaration and Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing. There is also wide speculation that the government may even move a resolution to rechristen India as Bharat.
The Special Session of Parliament will be held from September 18 to September 22, and there will be no question hour, zero hour, or private members’ business.
Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh hit out at the government over the Special Session of Parliament, stating that “only two people” know about its agenda, even as only a few days are left for its commencement.
“Today is September 13th. The five-day Special Session of Parliament will commence five days from now, and nobody — barring one Man (ok, perhaps the other one too) — has any sense of the agenda.
On every previous occasion, when Special Sessions or Special Sittings were held, the list of business was known in advance, Ramesh wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
He also listed out the previous occasions when a Special Sitting of Parliament was convened and the business that was notified in advance and taken up at the meeting.
It may be recalled that former Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi had reportedly written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to point out that this Special Session has been convened without any consultation with other political parties.
“None of us have any idea of its agenda. All we have been communicated is that all five days have been allocated for ‘government business,” she told the Prime Minister in that letter.