We work hard! Why our Parliament does not?
A troubling question indeed! Why our parliament can’t concentrate on discussing
new bills and passing key legislations especially when sessions in the past have
rendered no output. The winter session of the parliament began today. Our
parliament has three sessions-summer, monsoon and winter every year. Last
session of the parliament already saw very little legislative work happening due
to stalemate between opposition and ruling alliance over Anna Hazare, cash for
vote scam and Gujarat Lokayukta. Winter session which saw its first day today if
is taken as an indication of what would follow in this session then situation seems
to be equally or even more grim. Lok Sabha was adjourned twice today, once
during the question hour when Home Minister P. Chidambaram (PC) tried to
answer question of an MP and once during the afternoon. Rajya Sabha was also
adjourned over Mayawati’s resolution on division of UP which got passed in the
state assembly yesterday. Division of UP is facing opposition from most parties
and members demanded a discussion on the issue in both the houses.
If rough estimates of one hour of parliament’s functioning according to budgetary
allocation are to go by, then parliament lost Rs. 1 crore today as one hour costs
Rs. 25 lakhs to the exchequer.
Opposition has decided to boycott Home Minister PC during this session over his
alleged involvement in 2G-spectrum scam. Opposition has equaled this decision
with an occasion in the past when Congress boycotted George Fernandes who
resigned later. BJP and allies are demanding PC’s resignation on the same lines.
Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley has invoked the
responsibility of the parliament as a ‘conscious keeper of India’s democracy’. It is
indeed true that opposition has a great role in checking the functioning of the
democracy but such disruptions don’t point towards a healthy trend for the future.
Foreign media, which is usually in the awe of our vibrant democracy, has been
harshly critical of this throughout the day with a sample headline by Wall Street
Journal being ‘India's New Parliament Session Ends Abruptly’