RANCHI — The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led coalition government in Jharkhand had called a special Assembly session twice last year, but the party has taken strong objection to the special Parliament session convened by the BJP-led Central government from September 18 to 22.
According to JMM, the Central government fears the unity of the INDIA bloc and wants to pursue some kind of hidden “political agenda” under the pretext of a special Parliament session.
JMM is one of those parties which has been active in uniting the INDIA bloc right from the beginning.
JMM’s Working President Hemant Soren is also an active member of the coordination committee of the INDIA bloc. He has participated in all the meetings held by the opposition alliance so far. It is clear from his political stand that whatever will be the common agenda of the INDIA bloc with regard to the special session of the Parliament, JMM will act accordingly.
JMM may lead the coalition government in Jharkhand, but in the Parliament, it does not have that much representation in terms of numerical strength. The party has only one MP in the Lok Sabha — Vijay Hansda, who represents the Rajmahal Assembly constituency in Jharkhand.
The JMM has two MPs in the Rajya Sabha — Shibu Soren and Mahua Manjhi. Shibu Soren is unwell these days and despite being the party President, his presence in the Parliament meetings is often negligible.
Mahua Manjhi has been recognised as a famous Hindi litterateur. Since reaching the Parliament for the first time last year, she has participated in House discussions several times. She says that the rationale behind calling a special session is not clear.
Supriyo Bhattacharya, General Secretary and spokesperson of JMM, said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is jittery about the unity of the opposition parties which is evident from the meetings held by the INDIA bloc. This is the reason he (Modi) has called a five-day special session.”
Bhattacharya said that before holding a special session, a formal letter is issued to the opposition parties, but this time they received information about it through social media.
“Will the legislature in this country be governed by information released on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp? The government should give due notice of any such decision and the agenda of the session should also be clearly informed to the people of the country so that the opposition parties can also participate in the session with full preparation. So far, it seems that the Centre has some hidden agenda behind calling this session,” he said.
Bhattacharya added, “In which part of the country has disaster struck that a special session of the Parliament had to be called? Manipur has been burning for the last four months but the government didn’t call a special session. The government is running away from answering the Opposition’s questions.” — IANS
