The Congress on Wednesday accused the Modi government of "bulldozing" three crucial bills in Parliament and of turning the parliamentary institutional mechanism "worthless".
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that the three bills were "deliberately not" referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change. He also hinted at quitting the chairmanship of the key parliamentary panel.
"The Modi government has turned yet another institutional mechanism worthless. 3 very important Bills bulldozed through Parliament these past few days were deliberately not referred to the Standing Committee on Science & Tehnology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change," he said in a post on ‘X’, a micro-blogging site previously known as Twitter.
Ramesh said these are bills that radically amend the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and the bill to set up the Anusandhan National Research Foundation.
"Not only that, the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 on which the Committee submitted a comprehensive report with many substantive suggestions has been withdrawn. The Modi government has instead bypassed it with the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022.
"Under these circumstances, I see little value in continuing as the Chairman of this Standing Committee, the subjects of which are very close to my heart and fit my educational and professional background. All that is irrelevant in this age of self-styled Sarvagyaani and Vishwaguru," the senior Congress leader said in a series of posts.
