Four days ahead of the scheduled conclusion of the Monsoon Session, both the Houses of Parliament — which witnessed stormy and unrelenting protest from the Opposition on the price and GST increase leading to suspension of 24 MPs — were adjourned sine die on
Monday.
For the larger part of the session, which began on July 18, the Government and Opposition have been accusing each other over a host of issues, including inflation, alleged misuse of Central agencies against Opposition leaders and “insulting” the new President of the country.
During the second week, as many as 24 MPs (20 from the Rajya Sabha and 4 from the Lok Sabha) were suspended. However, the suspension of the Lok Sabha members — all from the Congress — was later revoked.
While Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House sine die, saying it met for 16 days and passed seven legislations, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, whose tenure will end on August 10, adjourned the House sine die, saying that detailed statistics pertaining to the session will be circulated during the course by the Rajya Sabha secretariat.
The session opened with the first tribal woman Droupadi Murmu moving to Rashtrapati Bhawan as President of the country and towards the end witnessed new Vice-President-elect who is also Chairman of Rajya Sabha Jagdeep Dhankhar replacing Naidu.
Members of both the Houses of Parliament extended farewell to the outgoing President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, in the Central Hall of Parliament House on July 23 July. Murmu took the oath of office in the Central Hall of Parliament House on July 25, 2022.
At the conclusion of the session, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla informed that during this session, a total number of 16 sittings were held which lasted for about 44 hours 29 minutes with 48 per cent productivity.
Seven Bills passed by the Lok Sabha in the session are Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022, Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022, National Anti-Doping Bill, 2021, WildLife Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and Wild Life Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
Birla said the Members raised 318 matters of public interest before the House under Rule 377. During the Zero Hour, Members raised 98 matters on various important issues.
In Rajya Sabha, five Bills were discussed and passed during the session, 27 private members were also introduced and only one private member Bill regarding the right to health could be partly discussed during the entire session. Naidu lamented that over 47 hours were lost due to disruptions in the Upper House that prevented members from raising issues of public importance. Naidu said the House had 16 sittings during which it conducted business for more than 38 hours. Five Government Bills were discussed and passed.
Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha almost through the 16-day session remained paralysed with Opposition, mainly the Congress, remaining daggers-drawn with the Government on Enforcement Directorate’s action against its top leaders. The Opposition members most of the day trooped into the Well of the House to protest against the price-rise leading to repeated adjournments in both the Houses.
The debate on the price-rise did take place last week after days of disruption of proceedings in both the Houses with Opposition members shouting slogans and carrying anti-Government placards. Parliament business was also derailed by Congress member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s ‘rashtrapatni’ remark to which BJP members took strong objection to and sought an apology from Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
TMC MP Derek O’Brien on Monday hit out at the Government over its decision to cut short the Monsoon Session of Parliament. “This is the seventh consecutive time Parliament session has been cut short. Stop mocking #Parliament. We will fight for its sanctity and prevent PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah from turning this great institution into the Gujarat Gymkhana,” O’Brien said in a tweet.