“Special session of Parliament (13the session of 17th Lok Sabha and 261st session of Rajya Sabha) is being called from 18th to 22nd September having 5 sittings. Amid Amrit Kaal, looking forward to fruitful discussions and debate in Parliament,” parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi tweeted on X.
The session is likely to focus on the big achievements of the government. The G20 summit will be held next week. The NDA government has given significant traction to India’s rotational G20 presidency since last year. The session will not have any Question Hour (written questions are submitted by MPs to Parliament in advance for ministries to prepare the answers) or Zero Hour. With the session ending on September 22, there will be no private members’ bills either. A resolution or sense of the House on ‘Amrit Kaal’ may be passed.
The Modi government had held a special session in 2015 to celebrate November 26 as Constitution Day to mark the adoption of the Constitution in 1949.
The announcement of the special session came on a day when the INDIA coalition of 28 Opposition parties was set to hold its third meeting at Mumbai. Shiv Sena (UBT), which is part of the INDIA coalition, slammed the government for convening the session when the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations- which last 10 days in Maharashtra, will be on. The festival falls on September 19 this year.
The session will be held weeks before elections to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram are announced. The elections will be keenly watched as there is a direct contest between BJP and Congress in three of them and the outcome is bound to be seen as an indicator ahead of the 2024 elections.Though there are some achievements that the government can boast about, the BJP-led dispensation still has a lot of important legislative and political agenda on its plate before the 2024 polls. The three bills aimed at replacing the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act are with the standing committee on home affairs for scrutiny. Government also plans to bring in the Population Control Bill.
The Ram temple under construction at Ayodhya is likely to be inaugurated in the second half of January. Prime Minister Modi had also announced on June 28 his government’s intent to usher in a Uniform Civil Code though with several issues like rights of tribals it requires a wider consensus.
The Opposition has raked up the Adani issue, polarisation and rights of minorities, alleged corruption, high food inflation and unemployment, attack on institutions like the Election Commission, among other issues, to corner the government during previous sessions. It is likely to raise these issues during the special session.
