Govt flouted rules to pass new I-T bill, Oppn complains to President
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had also overruled amendments which would require presidential assent.
New Delhi: Stepping up its attack on the government over Income-Tax Amendment Bill, a united Opposition on Wednesday petitioned President Pranab Mukherjee against it, alleging the legislation was hurriedly passed in the Lok Sabha bypassing parliamentary rules and procedures.
Members of as many as 16 Opposition parties, including Congress, arch rivals Trinamul Congress and the Left, SP and BSP, besides DMK, JMM, NCP and others met the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday evening and handed over a memorandum, which alleged a “brute and authoritarian” government was “stifling” the democratic process.
The Bill, which is basically an amnesty scheme for black money, was passed by a voice vote when the House was not in order. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had also overruled amendments which would require presidential assent.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who headed the delegation, alleged that the way the bill was passed in Parliament without any discussion shows that people’s voices were being crushed in the entire country.
“We informed the President that parliamentary procedures were not being followed and the MPs voice are being crushed,” he said.
“This was being done across the country and now it is being done in Parliament blatantly. This is not the way to run parliamentary democracy. That is why we have come to meet the President here,” he said. Asked whether Mr Mukherjee made any assurances, he said: “Normally we put our views before him and the President takes it into consideration”.
Trinamul leader Sudip Bandopadhyay said that 16 Opposition parties have come together to clarify and explain to the President the way the taxation amendment bill was taken up in Lok Sabha.