Even before the Legislature session commenced, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Monday hinted that the state was contemplating reducing the legislative session from eight to three days owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to reporters here, Yediyurappa said that more than 60 legislators have been tested positive, hence, we should think of reducing the number of days to three from eight. “We will discuss this issue in the Business Advisory Committee, where we will try to convince our opposition party leaders on this matter,” he added.
Meanwhile, reacting sharply to this, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, D.K. Shivakumar described that curtailing legislative sessions was an act of nothing but the death of democracy. “Don’t we require at least two hours discussing each bill?” he questioned angrily and asserted that the opposition party would stick to its earlier demand that the on-going session must be extended by at least another eight days.
Adding to Shivakumar’s views, Karnataka leader of the opposition, Siddaramaiah quipped that the Opposition will agree to a reduction of days only if the ruling party, BJP withdraws all its 32 bills. “Let them withdraw all bills, then we can think about it,” he retorted and asserted that if the ruling party decides to bring all bills then the opposition would demand for extension of the session by another two weeks. “I agree there is a spike in Corona cases and some of our MLAs are not able to attend. All that is fine, but that cannot be the only thing to reduce the number of days,” he stressed.
While former Karnataka Chief Minister and JD(S) leader, H.D. Kumarswamy too asserted that the ruling party was introducing many contentious bills and they do not want a discussion on it, hence, they want to use the pandemic as an excuse to hide its failures. “We will not allow it to happen,” he said.
