Coronavirus: House to continue, must pitch in, like doctors, PM Modi to BJP MPs

Read | MP calls for adjournment of House session in view of coronavirus, Venkaiah says no

Sources said Modi told the MPs right at the beginning that they should be ready to attend the entire session, and that if doctors, media, airport and railway staff and other government employees were carrying out their duties so well, the MPs should also do it.

Several parliamentarians have been keen that the session be curtailed after important business is done given the medical advice to avoid large gatherings. Many states have already adjourned their Assembly sessions in face of the coronavirus scare.

On Tuesday, Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan announced that he had self-quarantined himself at his official residence in Delhi after coming to know that a doctor at a medical institute he had visited in Kerala had tested positive for Covid-19. Muraleedharan has tested negative but said he was being extra-cautious.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters after the meeting, “The Prime Minister urged the MPs to visit their constituencies on Saturday and Sunday in small groups. He advised them to make people aware about the measures they should take to prevent infection.”

Joshi said the PM added, “If media, doctors, pilots, state-owned transportation, airport, policemen, railway stations can work in this (the fight against coronavirus) direction, MPs have to do their job too. They have to keep the House running and simultaneously take care of their people.”

The minister said the 40-minute meeting was focused on coronavirus and the steps taken to contain it, with Modi also listing out the same. “We discussed the do’s and don’ts, and the role of MPs. We also talked about those who have been working in fields like railway stations, airports to appreciate their efforts because it is very difficult to contain the infection in a country of 130 crore people.”

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke on the Yes Bank crisis, sources said, telling the MPs that the government was keeping an eye on the developments and things were under control. She said that with the RBI set to lift moratorium on Yes Bank on Wednesday, everything would be back to normal.

“The minister said there is no need to create panic and MPs should convey to people that their deposits were safe and no one would lose a single penny,” said a party MP.

Congress points at ‘contradiction’

The Congress on Tuesday said there is “some degree of contradiction” in PM Narendra Modi asking people to practise social distancing but letting the Parliament function.

Speaking to the media, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “ I think coronavirus is a matter of national importance, cutting across the party lines; it should not be a divisive political issue. I think the government is trying its best, I am not at all criticising the government…

“There is some degree of the contradiction that the Prime Minister, on the one hand, clearly says that you should have social distancing, you should have working from home, you have closed schools, colleges. Courts where I go every day have at all three levels are functioning at 10-20 per cent…I don’t know the figures but, Parliament would have, I am sure something like 1,500 people every day, possibly 2,000 all, total. Now, I don’t think that there should be one day less functioning of Parliament, but, we have an in-built mechanism to make up,” he said. “…these calibrated, correct, nuanced approaches would be better for Parliament and in line with the Prime Minister’s thinking.”

Singhvi clarified that he was not talking about a “closure” of Parliament. “Closure is the wrong word, we are only calibrating,” he said, and added that medical experts of the government have to decide. —ENS