Manmohan Singh

New Delhi, Aug. 26: The Centre will hold the monsoon session of Parliament from October 17 to November 21, long after the rains are over and it’s time to usher in winter.

The decision, which was taken in a meeting of the cabinet committee for parliamentary affairs, raised the hackles of the Opposition that wondered why the government chose to “waste the monsoon session away, when there was nothing like an election or anything unprecedented or emergent to interrupt the schedule”.

By parliamentary convention, the monsoon session lasts for a month from mid-July. This year, the Lok Sabha alone was convened on July 21 and 22 for the UPA coalition to seek a trust vote after the Left withdrew its support and reduced the government to a minority.

Parliament was not prorogued after that and is deemed to be technically alive which means that with a minimum 15-day notice, it could have been reconvened to transact legislative business.

However, the government kept putting it off without offering an explanation as the BJP and the Left sought answers on why it was “running away” from Parliament.

“The reason for the dates we chose was because it suits the government. It is the government’s prerogative to call the session any time it wishes to, provided it is held within six months of the date of the last one and that we have adhered to,” said V. Narayanswamy, the minister of state for parliamentary affairs.

In another departure from convention, the government is unlikely to have the winter session that usually starts in end-November or early-December and lasts three weeks.

Sources said the two sittings have been dovetailed and their duration increased to a little over a month to clear pending bills and complete other business. But allowing for the weekend recesses and the festival holidays (Diwali, Ramazan), it will last less than a month.

Janata Dal (United) leader and Raj-ya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav said: “It is a joke on the Constitution because while it is notionally a monsoon session, it will happen when winter is on its way.”

Government sources said Parliament would meet once more in February 2009 to take a vote-on-account before it is dissolved for the Lok Sabha elections.

The government has been unwilling to call Parliament without putting the Indo-US nuclear deal in place. It is worried that if the treaty does not go through, the Opposition would go for the jugular. Sources said the decision to call Parliament was a “measure” of its “cautious optimism” in being able to jump the NSG hurdle.

By October, the government also hopes to restore a semblance of normality in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The number of parliamentary sittings is going down through the years but this government is setting a precedent by doing away with both the monsoon and winter sessions, in a sense,” said CPM MP Mohammed Salim.