Alleging that it has become the Modi government's "modus operandi" to send Bills to Joint Committees of Parliament headed by BJP MPs, the Congress on Tuesday demanded that the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, be referred to the concerned Parliamentary Standing Committee.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that between 2019 and 2024, only 16 per cent of the Bills were referred to Parliamentary Standing Committees chaired by the opposition parliamentarians.
"Between 2009 and 2014, under Dr Manmohan Singh, 71% of Bills were referred to Parliamentary Standing Committees. The Modi Government's modus operandi has also been to refer bills to separate Joint Committees of Parliament headed by BJP MPs rather than to Parliamentary Standing Committees when they are chaired by Opposition MPs," Ramesh said on X.
“It happened twice to Bills dealing with biodiversity protection and forest conservation,” he pointed out. Ramesh alleged that the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill 2025 was deliberately not referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, earlier headed by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, and instead was sent to a Joint Committee headed by a BJP MP.
“In Dr Manmohan Singh's tenure, even signature legislations like the now-bulldozed MGNREGA and the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 were referred to BJP Chairpersons like Kalyan Singh and Sumitra Mahajan,” he said.
Ramesh said opposition parties in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have demanded that the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 be referred for detailed examination and wider consultations to the concerned Parliamentary Standing Committee (which is Finance in this case).
“Hopefully, this demand will be accepted,” he added.
The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, seeks to replace the 1959 Act, while retaining ISI's status as an Institution of National Importance.
The ISI is presently registered as a society under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961. The Bill provides that ISI will be a ‘body corporate’, and it will be a not-for-profit legal entity.
The Bill seeks to strengthen its governance, promote academic excellence and research and allow it to serve the emerging needs in the field of statistics and allied fields.
(With inputs from PTI)