Yechury asks Pranab not to approve ordinances

New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury Wednesday urged President Pranab Mukherjee not to approve ordinances in “grave violation” of parliamentary proceedings.

In an open letter to the president, Yechury said bills were being adopted even amidst din in parliament because of the “brute majority” the government has in the Lok Sabha.

“May I request you to intervene and ensure that such violation of parliamentary procedures is not permitted,” he said.

“Unless otherwise specified in the rules or under extraordinary circumstances, no legislative bill should be exempt from being scrutinized thoroughly by the Parliamentary Standing Committees.”

Yechury’s comments came on a day the cabinet approved ordinances to hike foreign equity capital in the insurance sector to 49 percent from 26 percent and to auction the coal blocks.

The CPI-M leader said: “A Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha scrutinised the Insurance Bill. Its report has been tabled in the house but not yet deliberated upon. It, hence, remains the property of the house on which a decision is pending.

“Until this process is completed, the issuance of an ordinance would be a grave violation of the sanctity of parliamentary proceedings. I am sincerely requesting you not to sanction such ordinances.

“Taking recourse to such an ‘Ordinance Route’ under these circumstances would be a clear violation of our established parliamentary democracy,” he said.

“I am sincerely requesting you to intervene in order to ‘nip in the bud’ such tendencies which may result in imposing an authoritarian manner of parliamentary functioning.

“This would be completely antithetical to the letter and sprit of our constitutionally established parliamentary democracy.”