BJP, Congress trade barbs over draft legislations

A war of words erupted on Saturday between environment minister Bhupender Yadav and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh over referring draft legislations to panels other than parliamentary standing committees.

Yadav tweeted a list of bills—109 from the Lok Sabha and 45 from the Rajya Sabha—that have been sent to joint committees so far to refute the Congress leader’s allegation that referring the Forest Conservation Amendment Bill to a joint committee on March 29 was “devaluation and denigration” of processes.

“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,” Yadav tweeted.

The parliamentary panels were formed only in 1993, Ramesh pointed out that, suggesting the previous Congress governments had no choice but to refer bills to other panels. “Standing Committees came into existence only on March 31, 1993. Better homework was expected of you Mantriji,” Ramesh tweeted.

“The detailed list is a result of thorough home work, Jairam ji. 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,” Yadav responded.

Due parliamentary process was followed in the case of modifying the forest law, Yadav maintained. “Positive participation in this process is incumbent upon the Opposition. Criticism for the sake of criticism from the Opposition is not healthy for democracy. 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 tweeted.

Hours later, in a media briefing to mark 50 years of Project Tiger, Ramesh drew a parallel between the ruling dispensation ’s earlier attempts to push bills as money bills to avoid scrutiny of Rajya Sabha, where the opposition were in majority, and bypassing standing committees.

“Absolutely identical. The Modi government didn’t send the data protection bill to the IT standing committee because it was headed by my colleague Shashi Tharoor. They did not send the Biodiversity Amendment Bill to the Standing Committee, which is headed by me. So, this is just like the Money Bill argument.”

With three working days left for the budget session, the proceedings in the two Houses are all but headed for a washout. No middle path has been found and there has been no communication between the government and the opposition parties, Ramesh said.

Referring to one of the meetings held by Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, Ramesh said: “The Chairman said, please find a way out, please compromise. He did not tell us what is the compromise. He told the leader of the house (commerce minister Piyush Goyal) and the opposition to be less rigid. This is, you know, Upnishadik statement.”