After prolonged disruptions, the Rajya Sabha got to work on the last day of the Session on Wednesday as Congress cooperated with the Government to pass three Bills. Howeve, both the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress continued to trade charges over repeated disruptions that affected functioning of the Upper House in a big way throughout the Winter Session.
With these three Bills, the Rajya Sabha passed nine Bills this Session, while the lok Sabha passed 12 Bills.
The Bills passed in the RS on the last day were the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, 2015, the Arbitration and Conciliation Act (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Atomic Energy (Amendment) Bill, 2015.
The Government accused the Congress of not accepting the people’s mandate to the Modi-Government and indulging in “lame excuses” to paralyse the two Houses of Parliament. In this context, the Centre referred to the “campaign” for “redefining”role of the RS.
The stormy Session of Parliament that commenced on November 26 did not take up the crucial economic reform Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill prompting some strong comments by RS Chairman Hamid Ansari, who asked MPs to introspect and desist from “demeaning the stature” of the House. However, he added the House has “partly salvaged” its image by passing three Bills.
In the lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan spoke of “tyranny of a few” taking away the right of majority of members to discuss issues in the House.
She twice threatened to take action against the Congress members who were disrupting the House by asking officials to note down their names. In the last Session, which was a washout, she had suspended as many as 25 of the 44 Congress members for their unrelenting disruptions.
The roller coaster Winter Session that lasted less than a month had 20 sittings in all and out of this, the RS lost 47 hours due to disruptions and bedlam caused almost every day by the Congress.
Continuously disrupted by the Congress, the lS with a BJP majority, however, performed better as it passed 13 Bills and saw discussions over various issues like flood and drought situation and alleged ‘intolerance’ in the country.
The Upper House could not, however, clear the pending GST Bill which provides for overhauling the direct tax structure of the country as Congress steadfastly maintained its opposition to it.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said while the productivity of the lok Sabha was 100.46 per cent during the Winter Session, that of the Rajya Sabha was only 46 per cent, that too after it passed a number of Bills in the last three days without much discussion which, Naidu said, was not a “healthy” trend.
The lok Sabha passed 13 Bills despite almost running disruptions from the Congress benches, particularly during the question hour. The Bills passed included the Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Bill and the National Waterways Bill.
A highlight of the session was the special sitting for the first two days to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar
The Rajya Sabha passed or returned nine Bills, including the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, the Appropriation Bills, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill.
On the last day, the Upper House passed four bills, three of them within a few minutes without any discussion.
The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 was referred to the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015, referred to a Joint Committee of both the Houses.
The Joint Committee of Parliament examining the contentious land Bill was granted a fresh extension by the lok Sabha till the end of the first part of the Budget Session.
This session saw the rare action of the Speaker expunging her own controversial “vested interests” remarks made about Congress members a day before.
But the parties, except the left, came together in the Upper House on Tuesday to pass the Juvenile Justice Bill under which the age of trying a juvenile as an adult in heinous crimes like rape was brought down from 18 years to 16 years.
The disruptions in both Houses were apparently caused over issues like summons by a Delhi court to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul in the National Herald case as also on subjects like atrocities on dalits, role of Arunachal Pradesh Governor and demand for resignation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in connection with alleged irregularities in the DDCA.
The Rajya Sabha also saw uproar over Congress member Kumari Selja’s remark about being asked about her caste at a temple in Gujarat, alleged anti-Dalit remarks of Minister VK Singh and RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s reported comments on Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The session witnessed the Finance Minister being in the firing line over the alleged financial bungling in the Delhi cricket body DDCA with even BJP MP Kirti Azad targetting him, drawing support from the Congress sides.
Azad was later suspended by the BJP on Wednesday for his “anti-party activities”.
Attacking Congress for using its numbers to “paralyse” the Rajya Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister backed the “campaign” for “redefining” its role as the two Houses are “pulling in different directions”.
Claiming that the country is “disappointed” with the functioning of Parliament, Naidu accused the Congress of “cheating the people” by not allowing the Government to do “what is expected of it”.
“This session has been a victim of a strategy conceived before its commencement which was to see that Parliament was paralysed come what may. Since the Monsoon Session, which was a near washout, the Rajya Sabha and the lok Sabha have been pulling in different directions, which is a matter of serious concern,” Naidu said.