Do politics, but let Parliament function, please
Precisely what did the Opposition achieve by orchestrating the washout of the Winter Session of ParliamentIJ In the 21 days of sitting, 92 hours were lost in the lok Sabha and 85 in the Rajya Sabha. Just one Bill of consequence, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2016, was passed by Parliament. Otherwise, except during obituary references, the two Houses of Parliament were drowned in chaos over the opposition parties' agitation on the Modi Government's demonetisation decision. The resulting mayhem led to consequences for both the Treasury bench and those in the Opposition. Neither could Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak on the issue of demonetisation, nor could Congress vice president. The Opposition ought to have played a constructive role. To being with, there was a bit of discussion on the subject when opposition members spoke. However, when it came to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA's turn, disruptions were engineered by the other side, which continued to the last day of the session the Friday gone by.
The Opposition in the lok Sabha insisted on a debate under provisions that called for voting, while the ruling combine favoured discussion under rules that did not have the voting clause. The Opposition blamed the BJP-led Government for being cussed; after all, it said, what was there for the Government to fear in a voting scenario given that it had the overwhelming numbers. On its part, the BJP questioned the demand as being frivolous and designed to score petty and entirely meaningless points. Eventually, the Congress did agree to a non-voting discussion, but by then it was too late. Perhaps the main opposition party realised that public mood was not in favour of its obstructionist strategy and, therefore, decided to course-correct. The Congress did little to create conducive environment for Parliament to function. Outside, Rahul Gandhi levelled serious allegations of corruption directly against the Prime Minister, but without offering a shred of even prima facie evidence. This upset members of the BJP who disrupted the Rajya Sabha's proceedings. It is amusing that the Congress holds this incident as proof of the ruling side not allowing Parliament to function. The opposition parties had held up proceedings throughout the session on unreasonable grounds.
There was so much to discuss and debate besides demonetisation. This month marks four years of the tragic Nirbhaya case. One had expected our parliamentarians to debate the steps taken since then to enhance safety and security measures for women and the utilisation of the Nirbhaya Fund, and suggest new measures to strengthen the existing laws. Parliament ought to have discussed a Private Member's Bill authored by Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar on declaring Pakistan a state-sponsor of terrorism. Sadly, none of these happened.
Meanwhile, opposition unity to the Government's demonetisation move crumbled on the final day of the Winter Session, when a delegation led by Rahul Gandhi met the Prime Minister with an appeal to provide sops to farmers. A miffed bunch of opposition parties stayed away from a Congress-led delegation that later met President Pranab Mukherjee over the session washout.