The ongoing winter session of Parliament, the last one of the 16th Lok Sabha before a new government is elected this year, seems headed for a complete washout, with multiparty disruptions leaving little time for doing business.
The session, which started off on December 11 with the task of voting 45 bills (including ordinances) into law, saw no more than three bills receiving the nod of both the Houses over 17 of the 20 sittings. And with only three working days till closing time on January 8, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of hope for the others.
At the beginning of the session, the government was looking forward to replace at least three ordinances with legislation. These were the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2018; the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, or the Triple Talaq Bill; and the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2018. It managed to get the last two past the hurdles in Lok Sabha.
Ironically, the Rajya Sabha clocked its most productive day on Thursday when it cleared the National Council for Teacher Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018. Both Both had been passed by Lok Sabha earlier. The Upper House also ratified a resolution for proclamation of President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir.
The only bill to have been taken up this session and passed is the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
The Parliament has virtually been under siege from the Opposition from day one. While the Congress has remained steadfast over its demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe on the Rafale fighter jet deal, Tamil Nadu political parties AIADMK and DMK have not allowed Parliament to function on the Cauvery dam issue. The TDP, which fell out with the National Democratic Alliance, has also been on a warpath with its demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh.
Though the BJP managed to pass the all-important Triple Talaq Bill in Lok Sabha on December 27 on the strength of numbers, it has failed to make headway in Rajya Sabha, amid a united Opposition's demand that the Bill be sent to a select joint committee.
According to PRS, a non-profit that tracks parliamentary proceedings, Lok Sabha's productivity in Winter Session has plunged to 33 per cent, which means it dedicated only 12 hours for legislative work. That of Rajya Sabha is down to an abysmal 6 per cent, with only 0.3 hours of legislative work.
The frustration of not being able to conduct any business led Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to severely reprimand the agitating members. Cracking the whip on unruly parliamentarians, Mahajan suspended 45 Lok Sabha members belonging to the TDP and AIADMK in the last two days. She suspended 24 AIADMK members on Wednesday for five consecutive sittings, and 21 AIADMK and TDP members, and an unattached YSR Congress member, on Thursday.
The action was taken under rule 374A of Lok Sabha which says that they cannot attend the remaining days of the session, which concludes on January 8.
In February, 2014, Meira Kumar, then the Lok sabha speaker, had suspended 18 MPs from Andhra Pradesh following bedlam in the House.