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Productivity of both the Houses was under par during the winter session and transaction of business was carried out in a hurry. While it suited the ruling dispensation, it deprived the Opposition of opportunity to corner the government on sticky issues.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Parliament has come to be reckoned with as the most important component of parliamentary democracy that serves as a direct link between the ruler and the ruled. Abraham Lincoln\u2019s famous definition of a democracy as the government of the people, by the people and for the people is truly represented by directly elected representatives. Undoubtedly, democracy is becoming a popular system of governance worldwide where many countries are trying to nurture and preserve the\u00a0tenets of democracy for the wellbeing of their masses; nevertheless, a semblance of decline in the parliamentary system and democratic institutions is also becoming discernible. Along with other countries that are practicing parliamentary democracy, India is also witnessing a gradual decline in its parliamentary system as well as democratic institutions for some decades now.<\/p>\n And almost all political parties,\u00a0irrespective\u00a0of their ideologies and hues, that happened to\u00a0be\u00a0at the helm of affairs on one time or the other, have contributed to this democratic decline and non-functioning of Parliament. Washing\u00a0out\u00a0of the parliamentary sessions from time to time\u00a0without transacting any meaningful business has become the norm of the day with major political parties hereby squandering away taxpayers\u2019 money down the drain.\u00a0 Monsoon Session and the Winter Session of the parliament held in 2021 have been washed\u00a0out\u00a0and present the stark examples of declining system of parliamentary democratic system in India and that is a worrisome question for all democracy-loving people.<\/p>\n Winter\u00a0Session of Parliament was to commence from November 29 to December 23 this year, and this session was said to have assumed significance in the backdrop of Prime Minister\u2019s announcement on November 19 with regard to his government\u2019s decision to repeal the three controversial farm laws \u00a0This winter session of parliament was expected to be stormy session because of the issues of national importance, such as the Pegasus spyware controversy, data protection bill, electoral\u00a0reform amendment bill, issue of abolishing the NEET system, extending the jurisdiction of paramilitary forces in Punjab and West Bengal\u00a0etc., were such issues that entailed every likelihood of making Winter Session as a stormy session.<\/p>\n On both issues of repealing three controversial farm laws and controversy over\u00a0Pegasus spyware, Modi government was seemingly on\u00a0back foot\u00a0because it was reluctant to\u00a0invite discussion on these issues.\u00a0Interestingly, the Pegasus issue had already rocked Parliament in the previous Monsoon Session this year, with the nation watching unprecedented protests in the Lower House as well as Upper House of Parliament.\u00a0Besides, appointment of an independent technical committee by the Supreme Court to examine issues involved in Pegasus case had strengthened Opposition\u2019s case and put the Modi government on defensive.<\/p>\n Apart from these two controversial issues, the data protection bill, specifically Section 35 of the bill that empowers the government to exempt federal agencies\u00a0from the\u00a0application\u00a0of the data\u00a0protection\u00a0law\u00a0in the\u00a0interest\u00a0of \u201csovereignty and\u00a0integrity\u00a0of India,\u00a0security\u00a0of the\u00a0state, friendly relations with\u00a0foreign\u00a0countries and public order\u201d, and which had dissenting opinion of the Opposition\u00a0members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on this bill, was also expected to be storm-raising issue.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Modi government\u2019s decision to extend the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) in the states of Punjab and West Bengal had already been opposed by the governments\u00a0of those respective states alleging that the Central Government was violating the federal structure of the country, and any\u00a0possibility\u00a0of debate on this issue in the Winter Session was prone to be stormy. Precedence mirrors the present and future as well and going by this measure, washing\u00a0out\u00a0of the previous Monsoon\u00a0Session\u00a0this year\u00a0two days ahead of schedule with both Houses being disrupted time and again, even the Winter Session was likely to go the same way.\u00a0As per PRS Legislative Research data,\u00a0the Monsoon Session was the third least\u00a0productive\u00a0Lok Sabha session of the\u00a0last\u00a0two\u00a0decades, with a productivity of just 21\u00a0percent.\u00a0Rajya Sabha logged a productivity of 28\u00a0percent,\u00a0its eighth least\u00a0productive\u00a0Session since\u00a01999.<\/p>\n How did the winter session go<\/strong><\/p>\n As expected, the winter session of Parliament\u00a0proved stormy and was\u00a0held from November 29, 2021 to December 22 , 2021, and it was\u00a0adjourned one day\u00a0ahead\u00a0of\u00a0schedule, having sat for 18 days. On the\u00a0very\u00a0first\u00a0day, 12 MPs were suspended from Rajya Sabha for\u00a0having\u00a0not observed\u00a0parliamentary conduct\u00a0on the\u00a0last\u00a0day of Monsoon Session 2021. On the penultimate day of the session, another Rajya Sabha MP was suspended on the\u00a0grounds\u00a0of disorderly\u00a0conduct. The Winter Session saw introduction of\u00a012 Bills (excluding Appropriation Bills).\u00a0Of these,\u00a0ten Bills were passed, of which six had been introduced in this session, and these, inter alia, included:\u00a0\u00a0the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, and the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Bills pending from previous sessions that were passed in this session\u00a0included:\u00a0the Dam Safety Bill, 2019, and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019. Four Bills were referred to Committees including the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Mediation Bill,\u00a02021.\u00a0In the current Lok\u00a0Sabha,\u00a0only 13 % of the Bills\u00a0have\u00b7been referred to Committees.\u00a0\u00a0This is\u00a0much lower than the\u00a0last\u00a0three\u00a0Lok Sabhas.<\/p>\n The Winter\u00a0Session\u00a0of parliament\u00a0saw legislative agenda being carried out amid a storm of protests and chaos in both Houses, and at the very start of the session, Parliament witnessed\u00a0constant disruption and\u00a0adjournment\u00a0as\u00a0Rajya Sabha chairman suspended 12 Opposition MPs\u00a0for their \u2018unruly\u2019 behaviour during the previous Monsoon Session and other Opposition members had been demanding the revocation of the suspension in both Houses. Overall productivity of both the Houses of Parliament was said to be below expectations and transaction of business was carried out hurriedly and it suited the ruling dispensation and spoiled the opportunity for the Opposition to corner the ruling party on sticky issues.<\/p>\n Winter Session witnessed Lok Sabha passing 35% of Bills in less than 30 minutes. Lok Sabha sat for 77% of its schedule time, while Rajya Sabha sat for 43% of its schedule time. According to Union parliamentary affairs minister, during the Winter Session, Lok Sabha registered 82% productivity while Rajya Sabha witnessed 47% productivity. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said that the ruling NDA government deliberately suspended the 12 Rajya Sabha MPs so that the bills could be passed easily despite the request by the Opposition for revoking the suspension so that the House could function smoothly.<\/p>\n A Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n Frequent incidents of washing out of periodic sessions of\u00a0Parliament do not bode well for sustenance of democracy in India in the long run. A nation that prides itself being an example worth emulating for successful functioning of parliamentary democracy for\u00a0the emerging democracies, the sordid state of affairs prevalent in the country entail the likelihood of spoiling India\u2019s image of a successful democracy. Both the present ruling dispensation and the Opposition need to do rethinking their way of approaching the uninterrupted functioning of the Parliament as well as preservation and further strengthening of parliamentary and democratic institutions. India\u2019s credentials as a free and democratic country are coming under eclipse in the international comity of nations as reflected in various reports published by international\u00a0institutions\u00a0from time to time. Larger national interest of preserving democracy and hard-won\u00a0freedom should prevail over petty political interests.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Productivity of both the Houses was under par during the winter session and transaction of business was carried out in a hurry. While it suited the ruling dispensation, it deprived the Opposition of opportunity to corner the government on sticky issues. Parliament has come to be reckoned with as the most important component of parliamentary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":335120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14886,23,2205],"tags":[14952,14951,3274,10217],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335121,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335119\/revisions\/335121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/335120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}