Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 6: The Budget session of Parliament ended as per schedule on Thursday with an abysmal productivity as most parts of the four-week-long second leg of the session got washed out over the ruling party and opposition creating chaos in both the Houses over different demands.
While the opposition refused to allow the Houses to function raising demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into Adani affairs, the ruling BJP members kept sloganeering demanding an apology from the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his ‘democracy under attack’ comment made in London.
The acrimony between the government and the Opposition sharpened after Mr. Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha a day after his conviction in a criminal defamation case by a Surat court on March 23.
Data released by the Lok Sabha Secretariat showed that the House had a 83.8% productivity rate in the first part of the Budget session, which crashed to just 5.29% in the second part. Over 96 hours and 13 minutes were lost to disruptions during the 11 th session of the 17 th Lok Sabha.
In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said the productivity of the first part of the Budget Session was 56.3%, which plummeted to an abysmal 6.4% in the second part. “Cumulatively, the House productivity was only 24.4%,” he said, adding, “Disruptions claimed 103 hours and 30 minutes of its time.”
The overall productivity of the two Houses during the entire budget session which started on January 31 with three-week recess in-between was 34 per cent in the Lower House and 24.4 per cent in the Upper House.
Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal made the announcement while addressing the media. “The productivity of the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session, 2023 was approximately 34 per cent and that of the Rajya Sabha was 24.4 per cent,” said the MoS.
The Minister said a total of six bills were passed by both the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha. During this session, a total of eight bills (eight in the Lok Sabha) were also introduced. The Finance Bill, 2023; The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2023; The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023; The Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023; The Appropriation Bill, 2023 and The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2023 were passed and returned by both the Houses. Most of the bills were passed without any discussion in the House.
The bills introduced in the Lok Sabha include The Finance Bill, 2023, The Inter-services Organisations (Command, Control & Discipline) Bill, 2023, The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2023, The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023, The Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023, The Appropriation Bill, 2023, The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 and The Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
On Thursday, floor leaders from most of the Opposition parties boycotted the customary tea meeting hosted by the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Deputy Leader of the House and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Supriya Sule were the only Opposition leaders who attended the meet.
The disruptions on the last day of the session also triggered a blame game between Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Malllikarjun Kharge and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju. Kharge blamed the Narendra Modi-led government for the washout while the Law Minister accused the Congress of insulting Parliament by wearing black clothes and that too only for Rahul Gandhi.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die as Opposition members continued their agitation for a JPC probe into the Adani issue. As is the tradition, Modi was present on the last day when the protests were on. Most BJP MPs were wearing scarves to mark the foundation day of the party. As soon as the House met for the day, Opposition members wearing black clothes trooped into the Well of the House and started shouting slogans and showing placards that read, “We want Adani JPC”.
“You have lowered the dignity of the House. This behaviour is not good for parliamentary system and the country. This House is always for high level of debate and discussions. But you systematically disrupt the proceedings which is not good,” Birla told Opposition MPs. “Dignity of the House has to be maintained… The House is for debate and discussions. I always give you enough opportunities to speak,” he added.
In the Rajya Sabha, Dhankhar noted that that the session came to a close on a “note of concern” and pointed out that “disorder” has become the new “order”. Between March 13 till the conclusion of the session on Thursday, the Rajya Sabha worked for only 5.75 hours. On the last day as well, the Rajya Sabha functioned for only 28 minutes.
In his concluding address, Dhankhar said, “Weaponising of politics by stalling functioning of Parliament is pregnant with serious consequences for our polity. This is to the utter dislike of the people at large. In public mind, we as a class are subject of disdain and ridicule.” The Chairman urged members to reflect on the track record and compare it to the expectations of the people. “Posterity will judge us not by the decibels generated in shouting slogans, but by our multifarious contributions towards strengthening the growth trajectory of our nation,” he added.
Arjun Ram Meghwal told reporters that the government had wanted to have a discussion on the Finance Bill before it was passed. “We were ready to give up our stand. But they should have also given up their stand. We had a strong stand,” he said, without directly specifying the BJP stand. He noted that the Speaker had called a meeting to defuse the logjam but the Opposition had stuck to its stand.