BJP-led government follows convention, 'introduces' new ministers in Parliament on first day of monsoon session
Jul 19, 2021
New Delhi [India], July 19 : The BJP-led NDA government on Monday adhered to the convention of introducing the new ministers to the two Houses of Parliament at the earliest possible opportunity.
However, the opposition created ruckus over its demands related to the discussion on issues like price rise and farmers' protest as Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his speech for introducing the new ministers in his expanded council of ministers to the two Houses of Parliament on the first day of the monsoon session.
According to a well-settled convention, when a new minister is appointed and sworn in, the Prime Minister or in his absence the Leader of the House introduces him to the House at the earliest possible opportunity.
The Prime Minister said the new ministers may be "considered introduced" in the House amid the din created by the opposition.
According to the convention, a minister is introduced to the House at the beginning of the question hour but there have been many occasions when ministers have been introduced to the house later in the day or on a subsequent day if any of them is not able to be present on the first day of introduction.
There have been precedents when an opposition member objected to a minister answering a question and supplementary without him being introduced to the House.
The Prime Minister had carried out a reshuffle and expansion of his ministry earlier this month.
In his remarks, the Prime Minister targeted the opposition for creating a ruckus.
"Today is an occasion when the children of farmers are being introduced, some people are in pain. What is this anti-women mindset because of which people are not ready to listen to names of women ministers in the House...What's this attitude towards Adivasis because of which people are not liking the introduction of Aadivasi ministers. Many ministers of the Dalit community are to be introduced, but they are obstructing it," PM Modi said in the upper House.
He said this kind of mindset is being witnessed the first time in the Parliament and urged the Chairman to "consider the new minister introduced to the House."
Rajya Sabha witnessed three adjournments, on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday before it was adjourned for the day. Lok Sabha also saw two adjournments before it adjourned for the day.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who interacted with the media, condemned the manner in which Opposition MPs behaved in the House.
"We saw a very unfortunate situation, both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. In Rajya Sabha, the address of the Chairman was interrupted too," said Goyal.
He noted that the old tradition of the Prime Minister introducing the new ministers to the rest of the MPs in the Parliament after a new Cabinet was formed or there was a reshuffle, was broken today for the first time because the Opposition MPs interrupted PM Modi.
"They could not see that such a large number of people from the backward community of the society have been inducted into the cabinet by the Prime Minister. For the first time, we saw such a large number of women, tribals, people from the northeast becoming a part of the union cabinet," he said.
Calling the interruption of the "democratic process" of the introduction of MPs as 'unfortunate', Goyal said, "It's an insult to democracy and people of India."
