​Frosty and bitter: On Parliament, the government and the Opposition

The first winter session of 18th Lok Sabha ended on December 20 as one of the least productive and most acrimonious in history. The conflict between the government and the Opposition degenerated into a scuffle on the penultimate day, followed by absurd allegations and police reports. The Opposition sent a notice for a motion of no confidence in Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar, which was rejected by the Deputy Chairman. The acrimony peaked with the Opposition turning a reference by Home Minister Amit Shah to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar into a stick to beat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with. Mr. Shah’s misspoken remarks were taken out of context by the Opposition which feels that it is par for the course. After all, the BJP had made ridiculous allegations about the Congress party’s supposed link with anti-India forces abroad to stall Parliament proceedings for several days earlier. Productivity in the Rajya Sabha was 40%, as it met for 43 hours and 27 minutes of the schedule. The Lok Sabha functioned for 54.5% of its scheduled time. Both the Houses witnessed protests from the treasury and Opposition sides over issues such as the alleged interference of U.S. billionaire George Soros in Indian politics, and the U.S. government’s actions against the Adani Group.

The session was scheduled to take up 16 Bills in the legislative business and the first batch of supplementary grants under the financial business. Of the 16 Bills, only one Bill, the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, significant for the civil aviation sector, was passed in both Houses. The Rajya Sabha passed the Boilers Bill and the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill, bringing major changes in the industrial laws governing large furnaces and boilers and the petroleum sector. Other than the Appropriation Bills as part of the supplementary demands for grants, the Lok Sabha discussed and passed the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Railways (Amendment) Bill and the Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill. The debates saw Opposition members asking the government to protect the public sector banking system, ensure the safety of rail passengers and employees and bring in transparency in the allocation of funds to States hit by natural calamities. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, that aim to achieve simultaneous elections in the country, were introduced and referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar made statements in both Houses on India-China relations. The winter session demonstrated the need for an urgent restoration of parliamentary norms and basic decency in exchanges between political opponents.