Fourt midnight session in House

New Delhi: At the Parliament’s midnight joint session as the gong sounds at 12 to signal the implementation of the GST it will be only the fourth such occasion in history when such a sitting has ever been held. Such special mid night sessions have been organised three times before today.

The first such session was held to celebrate the country’s independence on the intervening night of 14-15 August 1947, when the Central Hall of Parliament was called Constitution Hall. A special session was called at midnight in which the first President of India Rajendra Prasad sat first time on his chair. The second the session took place at midnight was when the country’s independence completed 25 years. While the third mid night session was called on intervening night of August 14-15 1997, when country completed 50 years of independence.

At that time, KR Narayan was the president and Indra Kumar Gujral was the Prime Minister of the country.

However, the Narendra Modi government’s decision to celebrate the successful implementation of the GST has also come in for severe criticism from the opposition, with several parties boycotting the event. Opposition  parties have alleged that the special session is nothing but an opportunity for event management.  The Congress alleged that such sessions have only been held to mark the independence day of the nation and never the imposition of taxes on the people.