Monsoon Session: Abrupt End

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Monsoon Session: Abrupt End

The Monsoon Session of Parliament was brought to an early end. Allegations about “lies” and physical violence, were levied from the government as well as the Opposition.   The Opposition alleges that “outsiders”, who were not part of Parliament security, were brought in to manhandle their leaders and MPs, who were protesting the government’s “authoritarian attitude” and “high-handedness”. The government accused the Opposition of “anarchy”, a premeditated bid to derail proceedings.

Whatever the truth, “this uncivil crossfire of words and images should embarrass both government as well as Opposition,” writes The Indian Express.

However, “this moment indicts the government much more. Because the abortive Monsoon Session was not just made of the unruly scenes that finally brought the curtain down on it. It was also about the government’s refusal to yield any space at all to the Opposition, and its brutish use of a majority to push through important bills without even a modicum of discussion, much less a reference to a parliamentary committee. The government refused to talk at all about the Pegasus revelations of its alleged use of Israeli spyware to potentially target political opponents, dissenters and others for snooping. It only allowed a discussion on the broad theme of agriculture after sanitising it of any reference to the Centre’s three farm laws that continue to stoke farmers’ protests. In this session, too, the government’s effort has been to paint the entire Opposition as a band of disruptors……”

 

Three takeaways

There were three broad political takeaways from the session, according to The Hindustan Times.  “One, India’s Parliament, and, by extension Indian democracy, is in crisis. The session saw disruptions on each day; unilateral passage of legislations; unprecedented scenes of Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) snatching papers, throwing the rule book at the Chair, and sitting on the secretariat table; suspension of seven MPs……..

“Two, the session marked the return of caste as the fundamental fault line in Indian politics. With the unanimous passage of a constitutional amendment to restore the power of states to draw their own list of backward classes, and the overwhelming demand for both a caste census and a provision to allow reservations to exceed the 50% ceiling imposed by the Supreme Court, it is clear that the medium-term future of politics lies in the management of identity politics. The government will focus on the enhanced representation of Other Backward Classes and highlight its commitment to reservations to sustain its electoral coalition. The Opposition will seek to fracture the government’s multi-caste alliance by raising demands which are sure to upset the latter’s upper caste base. Instead of moving towards a political imagination which makes individual citizens with rights and universal justice key principles, India is descending further into the morass of group identity-based politics.

“And finally, the Opposition in Parliament indicates that despite differences over leadership and alliances, there is a fundamental convergence across regional parties and the Congress about the need to battle the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the House, the political class was already fighting the 2022 Uttar Pradesh and 2024 general elections and trying to send signals to their respective constituencies. This polarisation is set to deepen.”

 

Dysfunctional Parliament

To to M.R. Madhavan (President of the PRS Legislative Research, New Delhi), the monsoon session was a disappointment in several ways. “This was the fourth straight session that ended ahead of the original schedule — other than the cancelled winter 2020 session. This meant that many important issues had not been discussed such as the COVID-19 response and strategy, the Chinese incursion into Ladakh, the economic situation, rising prices of many essential items, and farmers’ problems, to name a few……”

Bills passed mostly without any discussion:  Both Houses were frequently disrupted as the Government and Opposition parties could not agree on the topics to be debated. The Lok Sabha worked for just 19% of its originally scheduled time, and the Rajya Sabha for 26%.

The Government pushed through 20 Bills, mostly without any discussion. Of the 18 Bills passed by the Lok Sabha, only sone saw discussion over 15 minutes. While the Rajya Sabha crossed this low bar for most Bills, only two Bills were discussed for over an hour. In 15 of these Bills, not even one member of the Lok Sabha spoke; each Bill was passed after a short statement by the respective Minister. The Lok Sabha proceedings show one Bill — the Scheduled Tribes (Order) Amendment — as being discussed for 10 minutes within which seven members spoke, two Ministers intervened, and the Minister replied.

Every Bill introduced during the session was passed within the session. This means, writes Madhavan “that there was no time for any scrutiny by members.”

No scrutiny: None of the Bills was referred to a parliamentary committee for examination. These committees provide a forum for parliamentarians to engage with experts, stakeholders and government officials to understand the implications of Bills. “Thus, we see that Bills are being passed without any serious examination by parliamentarians. They are most often not being referred to committees, there is hardly any discussion on the floor of the House, and in most instances, Bills are passed within a few days of introduction.”

Crucial Bills: There were some important Bills passed this session. The Constitution was amended to allow States to identify backward classes (i.e., Other Backward Classes) for the purpose of providing reservations. A recent Constitution Amendment has converted the National Commission for Backward Classes from a statutory body set up by an Act of Parliament to a constitutional body. That amendment also specified that the President of India shall specify the list of OBCs. Recently, the Supreme Court of India had interpreted this provision to imply that the State government cannot issue the list of backward classes. The Amendment passed this session clarified that States have the power to do so.

No discussion on any policy issue: There was no discussion in Lok Sabha on any policy issue. The Rajya Sabha had just one such discussion on the management of COVID-19 which lasted nearly five hours. The supplementary demand for grants for ₹23,675 crore was passed by the Lok Sabha without any discussion.

In conclusion, Madhavan  says “Parliament appears to be quite ineffective in all its functions. The reason for having a legislature separate from the executive is to have a check on executive power. This session, the Government got every Bill that it introduced passed as an Act, without any debate, and without any scrutiny by committees. Question Hour hardly worked. There was just one debate in the Rajya Sabha and none in the Lok Sabha on policy issues. A large supplementary Budget was passed in less than 10 minutes without even one member speaking on it.”


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