Parliament's dismal record

No session of Parliament is as important for the government of the day as the Budget session, in which the Finance Bill is passed and which provides the treasury benches the right opportunity to table, and enable the passage of, critical reform legislation. Having presented a Budget that offered a menu to please many palates, Mr Pranab Mukherjee was able to ease the Finance Bill through without any demur; what the UPA government could not do, however, is far more important than the passage of its Budget for the new fiscal; its virtual helplessness exhibited its incapacity to create a more enabling environment for the economy.

Hobbled by the scams besetting it and a strident Opposition, the UPA sat helplessly, its back to the wall, and flailed weakly at the charges levelled against it of serial corruption and the evidence from WikiLeaks of supine deference to US political and commercial interests. In the ensuing melee, Parliament conducted precious little business; some 78 pending pieces of legislation, many of which would have impacted the economy, were left unattended. Historians will echo Thomas Hobbes' dismal take on life as ?nasty, brutish and short? when noting the duration and quality of this Budget session; never in 20 years has it been as short. To a large extent, the treasury benches are to blame for the truculent arrogance with which they treated all the accusations of corruption, not to forget their stubborn defence of the tainted former chief of the Central Vigilance Commission, Mr P. J. Thomas. Had the ruling coalition the wisdom and humility, not to mention grace, to admit to possible errors in its judgement and allow the rule of law to take its natural course, instead of taking on the judiciary heedlessly, it might have created a more amicable atmosphere for the watershed Budget session in which to adumbrate a more wholesome blueprint of reforms for the economy's journey in the new fiscal. But the Opposition too must share some of the blame for the shamefully wasted session. What it showed the nation is that its power politics over-rode its more substantive responsibilities to the problems that ail the national economy. And, of course, the fact that the elected representatives from both sides of the bench were keener on the forthcoming State elections bespeaks the callousness of Parliamentarians entrusted with the nation's well-being.

When the Budget session began, 78 reform Bills were pending passage; when it ended, the number had grown to 81. Some of these would have impacted the way the core sector picks up, or doesn't, in the next year. What more eloquent testimony for wilful neglect by our Parliamentarians does one need than this regressive mutation?

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