MADURAI: Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram on Saturday accused the Centre of undermining parliamentary democracy, alleging that none of the 12 Bills passed during the monsoon session was cleared after adequate debate.
Speaking at a Congress-organised public meeting titled ‘What Happened in Parliament?’ in Madurai, Chidambaram said the Tamil Nadu Assembly was functioning better than Parliament, where opposition leaders and MPs were allegedly not given sufficient opportunities to speak.
Criticising the legislation aimed at preventing unfair practices in competitive examinations, Chidambaram likened it to “locking the stable after the horse has bolted”. He said the law focused largely on punishment after violations rather than preventive measures.
On the proposed delimitation exercise, Chidambaram said Tamil Nadu should not lose any of its 39 Lok Sabha seats. He said the constitutional freeze on population-based delimitation, introduced in 1976 and subsequently extended, was due to end in 2026.