New Delhi: The second half of the budget session of Parliament, which ends on Wednesday, has been favourable to the ruling National Democratic Alliance, which not only managed to push its economic reforms agenda but also put up a united front.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told the parliamentary party of the Bharatiya Janata Party that the session was a victory for the Union government.
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“Prime Minister Narendra Modi told BJP parliamentarians that BJP was victorious in the budget session because apart from bills related to crucial goods and services tax (GST), Lok Sabha passed 21 bills while Rajya Sabha passed 14 bills,” said Ananth Kumar, parliamentary affairs minister.
The BJP leadership is also upbeat because its recent victories in assembly polls have silenced the opposition. BJP leaders have argued that the wins in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur showed government policies were appreciated by the people.
According to data by New Delhi-based PRS Legislative Research, productivity in the second half of the budget session as of Monday for Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was 112% and 87%, respectively. A total of 12 bills were passed by both the houses, including The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, The Mental Health Care Bill, 2013, The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill, 2016, The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the four supporting bills to roll out the GST.
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Work got done despite the government and opposition parties being locked in a bitter political tussle on issues such as racial attacks on Indians in the US, petrol and diesel price hike, whether Aadhaar was needed to access welfare benefits, and allegations that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were tampered with.
“The country expected that at the end of the budget session, thanks to the debates and the information provided by the government, there would be greater clarity about the state of the economy. Unfortunately, there is no such clarity. At the end of the session, we are no wiser than we were at the beginning of the session,” P. Chidambaram, former Union finance minister and senior Congress leader, said in a press release, adding that from the point of view of assessing the state of the economy, this was an “unsatisfactory” session.
Wednesday will mark the end of the budget session which began on 31 January and was held in two parts, including a month-long recess.
