Modi's 'Lakshman Rekha': India’s Parliamentarians Disappoint During Winter Session

The portents are ominous. Into its last week, the defining feature of the winter session of Parliament thus far has been pandemonium. Crucial bills such as the one to keep many of India’s coal mines running next financial year are yet to be cleared. 

Some longstanding bills like the one to reform insurance sector have not even been introduced. For sure, some bills such as one to ease adherence to labour laws have been shepherded through both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
On balance, however, the winter session has been a letdown and both treasury benches and opposition need to introspect.

PM Narendra Modi reportedly told his party’s parliamentarians in a closed door meeting to restrain themselves. They were told not to cross Lakshman Rekha and reminded that they were elected on a development agenda. This reminder was well deserved for it is worth wondering if this session could have been different if Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, a BJP minister, had not made intemperate remarks at a public meeting. 

Could the session have been more productive if controversies over religious conversion not been foregrounded? For a party that rode a wave of aspirations, BJP has not acquitted itself well in the winter session.

A productive parliamentary session depends on a constructive opposition too. Parliamentarians are elected to influence legislation, among other things, and the opposition has an important role to play. If the land acquisition legislation is in need of amendments a little over a year after it was passed by Parliament, it suggests that the then opposition failed to do its job. Verbal fights with ministers over unrelated issues such as the recent Sydney hostage crisis are indicative of the flippancy with which Parliament sessions are treated by opposition members.

The last two Lok Sabhas, 14 {+t} {+h} and 15 {+t} {+h} , functioned below par on account of the tendency of parliamentarians to grandstand. The 15 {+t} {+h} Lok Sabha inherited 37 bills from the previous one, one indicator of how effectively its predecessor functioned. 

The current Lok Sabha inherited 60 bills from its predecessor. Given this context and the scale of developmental challenges India faces, it is imperative that parliamentarians get their act together. The quality of debates and the effectiveness with which Parliament functions has a meaningful impact on society. Indians deserve better.