Functioning of Parliament matters not number of days it sat, says Venkaiah Naidu

Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said functioning of parliament was important not the number of days it sat.

The Vice President's remarks come a day after opposition parties criticized the modi government for truncating the winter session of parliament.

The government had on Friday announced it's intention to hold winter session of parliament from December 15 to Jan 5 after a volley of criticism from the opposition which accused the government of avoiding winter session of parliament.

Hitting out at the opposition, the Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said that what matters is how many days the parliament functions and not sat.

Naidu said that the philosophy of life should revolve around “character, calibre, compassion and conduct and not caste, community and cash”.

“From Kalidasa to Premchand, from Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore to present day, India has always been blessed with a strong literary lineage of writers, poets, intellectuals and thinkers, who have chronicled times, exemplified our open traditions,” he said.

Speaking at a literary festival here, Naidu said that the debate on the freedom of speech and expression should go on.

He urged the “pseudo politicians” to leave the three Cs of caste, community and cash and go back to “character, caliber, capacity, conduct and compassion” as the only yardstick for measuring merit.

He said while protesting, some people go overboard and announce rewards. “Whether these fellows have that much money or not, I doubt. Everyone is announcing Rs one crore reward. Is it soeasy to have Rs one crore?

“This is not acceptable in a democracy. You have the right to protest in a democratic manner, go to the appropriate authorities...you cannot physically obstruct and can’t give violent threats. Let us not undermine the rule of law,” he said.

(With PTI inputs)