Govt open to discuss all issues, no bar on usage of words in Parliament: Pralhad Joshi
Pralhad Joshi also hit out at the Opposition for creating controversies out of non-issues and trying to belittle the image of Parliament.
In the wake of the latest controversy over restrictions on unparliamentary words, the government on Sunday said this is not the first time that such a list was brought out and that such a practice had been in existence since 1954.
Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said no word has been barred from use in Parliament. “The Lok Sabha has been bringing out a list of unparliamentary words since 1954,” Joshi said after an all-party meeting on Sunday, ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament.
The Opposition has been demanding a discussion on the Agnipath scheme, the government's short-term recruitment plan for armed forces, which saw massive protests across the country by defence aspirants.
Speaking on the matter, Joshi said the government is open to discuss all issues under the rules and procedures of Parliament.
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He also hit out at the Opposition for creating controversies out of non-issues and trying to belittle the image of Parliament.
Stating that the government is "doing good work", Joshi said the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is recognised not just by people within India, but also those abroad.
"The opposition is trying to make issues out of non-issues as they do not have anything against the government," Joshi told reporters after the all-party meet.
On the Opposition criticism over the absence of the PM from the all-party meeting, the minister said, “Congress' Jairam Ramesh raised the issue that the PM didn't attend the meeting today. I want to tell him that before 2014, the PM never used to attend all-party meetings. How many times did Manmohan Singh ji attend the all-party meeting?” Joshi said.
He also said that the government would hold an all-party meeting on the Sri Lanka situation on Tuesday which will be chaired by Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar.
(With agency inputs)
