The Winter Session of the Parliament came to an end on Friday as it was adjourned sine die, but not before an unprecedented verbal spat, bitterness between the Ruling and Opposition members, and less productivity of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. However the Session also saw the gamechanger simultaneous polls Bill being tabled.
The Parliament this session witnessed a low point of alleged pushing and shoving amidst rival parties’ Members of Parliament (MPs) that left two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members hospitalised, and leading to an FIR against Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. The acrimony forced the Opposition parties to move a motion of no-confidence against the Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, which was, however, dismissed by the Upper House Deputy Chairman Harivansh.
Unrelenting protests peaked and ranged from the Adani controversy to Sambhal and then to the demand of sacking of Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks on Dr BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution.
The Parliament also saw a four-day debate on the constitutional journey of India, which began on a high pitched note of talks on Ambedkar’s legacy pertaining to the Constitution, which saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s participation. However, the debate ended with a speech by Home Minister Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha, creating flutters and sparking protests across the country for his remarks on Baba Saheb which both the ruling parties and Opposition parties have made attempts to capitalise on.
The bitterness between both sides was palpable by the fact that Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die within three minutes of its resumption, and without the valedictory message by Speaker Om Birla. As the Speaker had banned protest within the premises of Parliament, members resorted to verbal spats and sloganeering in the Lok Sabha, forcing Birla to adjourn the House. The Lok Sabha’s productivity was nearly 58 per cent, according to its secretariat, a far cry from days when it hovered around 100 per cent and even beyond.
The Rajya Sabha, however, agreed to let Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar read out his valedictory remarks before adjourning the House sine die. In his concluding remarks, Dhankhar called upon parties to rise above political differences and restore the sanctity of parliamentary discourse, striking a note of balance amid opposition’s charge that he has often been partisan.
He said the House effectively functioned for just 43 hours and 27 minutes with a productivity of merely 40.03 percent during the Winter Session that began on November 25.
Later at a Press conference, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju laid the blame at the door of the Opposition, especially the Congress, saying their continuous protest despite an earlier agreement to allow Parliament to run was the principal reason behind the low productivity.
During this Session, five Bills were introduced in Lok Sabha, which passed four of them. The Rajya Sabha passed three bills. A special Session was also held in the ‘Samvidhan Sadan’ to commemorate the Constitution Day on November 26.
During the debate Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked Congress, especially the Nehru-Gandhi family, for its “mutilation” of constitutional values but then Opposition parties seized on a couple of sentences of Amit Shah’s reply to accuse him of insulting Ambedkar and launched protests inside and outside Parliament.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs led counter protests, accusing the Congress of slighting Ambedkar and ignoring his legacy during its long decades in power. While the Opposition INDIA Bloc was a divided house with its members such as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC disagreeing with the prominence given to the Adani issue by the Congress. However, they rallied together over Shah’s comments.