Another washout?

Govt, Opposition must not waste the monsoon session

The shadow of the Budget session of Parliament looms over the next one, the monsoon session, which starts today. Initial indications suggest that much like the previous session, this one too could be lost to non-stop disruptions as the government and the Opposition parties gear up to score political points. That will be disappointing, as the Budget session was the least productive one since 2000. The Lok Sabha worked for just 21 per cent of its scheduled time, while the Rajya Sabha was marginally better at 27 per cent. In fact, in the second half of the session, the lower House functioned for just 4 per cent of its scheduled time and Rajya Sabha for less than 10 per cent. The result was that the Finance Bill, the most important piece of legislation in any given year, involving budgetary demands from 99 Union ministries and departments and over 200 amendments, was passed in a mere 18 minutes, without even a pretence of public debate.

The onus of running the two Houses of Parliament is on the government. But Parliament appears to have made disruptions the new norm. With each passing Lok Sabha, this trend seems to be getting more and more entrenched and the Opposition parties can no longer evade their responsibility in the matter. The odds, however, are against any such favourable outcome. The Telegu Desam Party and YSR Congress are determined to yet again bring a no-confidence motion against the National Democratic Alliance government, after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan went against established conventions and refused the motion to be considered, citing disruptions. The recent spate of lynching across several states and the sparring between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress over the Prime Minister’s statement about the latter unfairly treating Muslim women could easily become the backdrop for the two principal parties to avoid genuine debate on the legislative agenda that is pending before Parliament.

There are several key Ordinances and Bills, both political and economic in nature, that need the legislature’s scrutiny and approval to ensure smooth governance. The prime examples include the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018; The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017; and The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2018, among numerous others at varying stages of the legislative approval process. The point is that in the absence of debate, most of these Bills will turn into laws without any legislative accountability being enforced on the executive. Take, for example, the case of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2018, which introduces the death penalty for rape of minor girls below the age of 12. But this issue needs to be examined in detail because it is felt in many quarters that far from deterring rape, it is more likely to goad the rapist on to kill the victim. In the absence of serious debate in Parliament, the country could accumulate laws based on specious reasoning. The government and the Opposition should keep theatricals aside as nothing will be gained by bringing Indian parliamentary democracy’s most deliberative process to a grinding halt.