He Can't Escape Accountability: Sonia Gandhi Attacks PM Narendra Modi On Winter Session

Highlights

1. Sonia Gandhi says Winter session of Parliament is essential
2. Session not fixed yet since PM, ministers campaigning in Gujarat
3. Opposition wants to confront PM over economic slowdown

 New Delhi:  Sonia Gandhi, whose nearly 19-year term as Congress president ends in weeks, today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi "lacks the courage to face Parliament." Her allegation is based on the government's delaying of the winter session of Parliament, which usually begins in November and runs four weeks.

This time, however, because the PM and other top ministers are campaigning for the Gujarat election in December, the year-end session of Parliament has yet to be called. As first reported by NDTV, the government is planning to either skip the winter session, or call a very short one; the decision will be shaped by the scale of the opposition's pushback.

The law is that Parliament cannot go without meeting for longer than six months. Because the last (Monsoon) session of Parliament ended in August technically, the government need not organise another session till February.

Opponents like Mamata Banerjee and the Congress have said the government is ducking facing the opposition's questions over the economic slowdown that has registered after the twin reforms of demonetisation and the new national sales tax or GST.

"The Modi government in its arrogance has cast a dark shadow on India's parliamentary democracy by sabotaging the Winter Session of Parliament on flimsy grounds," Mrs Gandhi said, adding "(it) is mistaken if it thinks that by locking the temple of democracy, it will escape constitutional accountability ahead of the assembly elections."

Mrs Gandhi is to be replaced as Congress chief in early December by her son, Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the party's attempt to reclaim Gujarat, which the BJP has held for 22 back-to-back years.