The Hindu Business Line : Year 2005: Best and worst of times for Parliament

In the year gone by, Parliament enacted two significant and far-reaching pieces of legislation — the colossal Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Freedom of Information Act. But it was also a year of collective shame as shocking scams came to light across the the political spectrum. As the year drew to a close, the dignity of Parliament all but lay in shambles as, in probably the most shameful episode since Independence, eleven MPs were expelled for accepting money to raise questions in Parliament.

The cash-for-questions episode, caught on camera in a controversial sting operation and shown on television channels, came as a shock to the nation. The Leader of the House, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, who moved the motion for the expulsion, termed his job "painful". The Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, said it was not a "happy day" for the Chair. In a surprising somewhat uncharacteristic vein, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr L.K. Advani, remarked that the punishment meted out to the MPs was "not commensurate with the offence."

The discussion on the motion for expulsion heralded a Press-versus-Politician confrontation. Many members accused the media of "trapping the MPs unfairly". One member described journalists as "conspirators" spying on politicians and wanted them debarred from the Central Hall of Parliament. Others demanded a debate on the credibility of sting operations.

After a gap of four years, the spectre of terror returned to disturb the peace of Parliament on a pleasant winter day. An e-mail message that a bomb was planted on the premises and would blow up before noon led to the evacuation of the building. Only three days earlier was the fourth anniversary of the December 13, 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament House.

Almost forgotten by the end of the session was the Volcker report that had forced the exit of the External Affairs Minister, Mr Natwar Singh, from the Cabinet, and had paralysed proceedings in the first two weeks. The NDA also tried to exploit, without much success, the issue of the Mitrokhin memoirs in which a former KGB agent alleged that the Congress party was a recipient of Soviet funds during the Cold War era.

Early in the year, the Budget session, from February to May, was marked by frequent and acrimonious confrontation between the Government and the Opposition. Prolonged boycott by a peeved Opposition, mutual mud-slinging and the dangerous play of caste politics marked the three-month long session. The issues that deeply divided Parliament were the hasty and undemocratic dissolution of the Bihar Assembly by the Governor, Mr Buta Singh, the presence of "tainted ministers" in the UPA government, the row over the Kargil-related Defence purchases and the consequent submission and rejection of the Phukan Commission report that probed the Defence deals exposed by Tehelka, and the row over the Election Commission's "partisan" role and "casteist attitude" in countermanding the Chapra Lok Sabha poll in Bihar in November 2004.

The year's abiding images of Parliament were a blue-turbaned, misty-eyed Manmohan Singh apologising to his community for the 1984 slaughter of Sikhs and Mr Somnath Chatterjee's exasperation as he made a daily bid to cool tempers in the House. "I am ashamed to be the Speaker," he burst out more than once. Sadly, his words proved prophetic by the end of the session.

Perhaps the most depressing sight was Ms Mamata Bannerjee flinging a sheaf of papers at the Speaker's podium. The provocation for this was the Chair's refusal to allow her adjournment motion on illegal migration of Bangladeshis into India, a subject the House had already discussed. She got away lightly, the Speaker choosing to ignore the incident and not accepting a majority demand for her reprimand.

Sadly, the main Opposition was absent when important Bills on the Right to Information, Patents Amendment and the Prevention of Money Laundering were passed. Several Bills having a bearing on the economy and needing clarification were passed without discussion for want of time. These included the Chartered Accountants (Amendments) Bill, 2005, the Cost and Works Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2005 and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2005.

During the Session the House lost 27 hours and 20 minutes due to interruptions and forced adjournments. Among other important Bills passed were the National Tax Tribunal Bill, 2004 and the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2005. A happy development for the Congress party was the blossoming of Ms Sonia Gandhi into a vocal and articulate member of the House, especially when she made a passionate and forthright speech on the Rural Employment Guarantee Bill.

Her aggressive performance reminded old-timers of the similar transformation of her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi from being "a gungi gudia" (dumb doll) to what she eventually became. This was a positive development for the Congress at a time when the BJP's cup of woes brimmed over as its claim of being "a party with difference" was exposed to ridicule with the expulsion of its seven scam-tainted MPs and endless intra-party squabbles.

(The author, a former Deputy Editor with PTI, is a New Delhi based freelance journalist. Feedback can be sent to rajamani_rc@yahoo.co.uk)