The recent Budget session of Parliament has drawn significant attention for all the wrong reasons. The session, which lasted over 96 hours in the Lok Sabha and 103 hours in the Rajya Sabha, has been described as one of the least productive in the country’s parliamentary history.
To provide a more granular analysis of the proceedings, it is worth noting that the Lok Sabha functioned for a meagre 45 hours.
So the question comes up: why did the disruption happen? While the Opposition created the disruption over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha, the ruling party did everything possible to not discuss the Adani-Hindenburg issue.
Stalling Parliament as a symbol of protest is not a new thing. Often, we see our MPs creating a ruckus in Parliament, an institution where they are supposed to be the voice of the people. The citizens of this country are inured to seeing Members of Parliament getting into fisticuffs, using pepper spray on each other, and Marshalls are sometimes called to remove the more unruly among them from the House.
It is time to remind our elected representatives of their duties towards the people of their constituencies and get on with business of enacting legislation.
Parliament was supposed to “introduce 19 Bills and get Parliamentary approval on 38 Bills”, according to PRS Legislative Research. However, thanks to the chaos, it could pass only two Bills and introduce 16 Bills.
Interestingly, amid the chaos, there was hardly any debate on the union Budget.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “The country will not forgive opposition parties for disrupting Parliamentary proceedings over Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification.” Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge blamed the government for the shutdown.
Amidst this blame game, it is the common people’s interests that are sacrificed.