NEW DELHI: Defence Minister and Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Rajnath Singh on Tuesday expressed displeasure over low attendance in both the Houses of Parliament. He said there had been no improvement in the situation despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking up the issue at BJP’s Parliamentary party meeting.
The government is set to table the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the current session, and the Opposition is expected to rally against it. While the BJP has an overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha, the numbers are not comfortable for the party in the Rajya Sabha. Hence, the absenteeism among its MPs is worrying the saffron outfit.
Singh addressed the BJP parliamentary party meeting in the absence of PM Modi, who was in Jharkhand to campaign for the Assembly polls. BJP chief Amit Shah also attended the meeting along with a number of Union ministers.
Singh, sources said, dwelt upon the Citizenship Amendment Bill and the issues being raised against it by the Opposition. “The three neighbouring countries which come under the ambit of the Bill are Islamic countries. Muslims aren’t persecuted there on account of their religion, but the minority communities are. These communities have nowhere to go to escape the religious persecution, proved by the sharp decline in their population over the years,” Singh reportedly told the party meeting.
He talked at length on the Opposition’s charge that the Bill is against the secular character of the country. Singh reportedly asked the party MPs to attend the Parliament regularly since the government would be pushing some important legislations. Singh, sources said, stressed that the Citizenship Bill is as important as the legislation on Jammu and Kashmir.