NEW DELHI: Continued disruptions in Parliament have led to losses to the tune of over Rs 130 crore in the ongoing monsoon session, sources said on Saturday. Both Houses have witnessed minimum legislative business and the deadlock between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration and the Opposition, mainly over the Pegasus snooping controversy, showed no signs of subsiding.
The Opposition has been pressing for discussion and an independent inquiry by a Supreme Court judge, serving or retired, into reports that an Israeli spyware sold only to governments was used to hack phones of political leaders, judges, activists and ministers. However, the government has dismissed these demands and termed the snooping of phones a “non-issue”.
A statement given out to the media via unnamed “government sources” on Saturday said the deadlock meant that the Lok Sabha only functioned for about seven hours out of a possible 54, and Rajya Sabha 11 hours out of a possible 53.
“So far, Parliament has functioned only 18 hours out of a possible 107 hours. Thus, around 89 hours of working time have been wasted. This means that the total loss for the taxpayers is more than Rs 133 crores,” the statement said.
Both Houses have seen ruckus and uproars during this session. Even on the first day of the session, the Prime Minister was not allowed to introduce new ministers to the Parliament amid uproar from the Opposition. The chaos continued in the House until it was adjourned. Opposition lawmakers raised slogans disrupting Modi’s address and took to the floor of the House.
The information on the amount of losses came days after the government slammed Congress, accusing it of not allowing the monsoon session to function and asked BJP MPs to “expose the party before the public and the media”.
The Opposition parties have maintained that blocking the government from running Parliament a tactic widely used and espoused by the BJP when it was not in power is a democratic process to yield the government into hearing its demands over a serious national security and privacy row. They are even calling it “bigger than Watergate”.