After demonetization fallout 'least productive' Parliament session ends

The month-long Winter session of Parliament concluded on Friday, with the demonetization row ensuring a virtual washout and making it one of the "least productive" sessions in the last 15 years. Due to the repeated disruptions, Lok Sabha could function only for 15.75% and lost 92 hours while Rajya Sabha worked for 20.61% and lost about 86 hours.

Negligible business was transacted during the 21 scheduled sittings of the session that began on November 16 and several important legislations like the one on GST were left pending. The only significant legislative action was the passage of the Rights of Persons with Disability Bill by both the Houses. Significantly, this bill was cleared on the last day on Friday after a brief debate and with rare bonhomie, similar to the one witnessed in the Rajya Sabha on it two days back.

During the session, the Lok Sabha also passed the Income Tax Amendment Bill without any debate amid din but it could not be taken up for consideration in the Rajya Sabha. The only other legislative action was the approval of the Supplementary Demands for Grants. "This has been one of the least productive Question Hour sessions for Rajya Sabha in the last three Parliaments.

Previously, one of the 480 questions and none of the 420 questions were answered orally in the Winter sessions of 2010 and 2013, respectively," said PRS Legislative Research. While adjourning the two Houses sine die, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari expressed pain and anguish over the repeated disruptions.

Ansari said "all sections" of the House need to introspect on the distinction between dissent, disruption and agitation. "Regular and continuous disruptions characterised this Session. The symbolism of dignified protests, so essential for orderly conduct of Parliamentary proceedings, was abandoned," he lamented. "The prohibition in the Rules about shouting slogans, displaying posters and obstructing proceedings by leaving their assigned places was consistently ignored by all sections of the House," he said, adding that "peace prevailed only when obituaries were read".

In the Rajya Sabha, the debate on demonetization took place on the first day of the session but subsequently the opposition continuously created uproar demanding presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the entire discussion. The debate was again taken up once for an hour when Modi was present but it could not be carried forward. 

The Rajya Sabha saw introduction of 12 bills but only one was passed. In the Lok Sabha, the debate could be hardly taken up even though both the government and opposition repeatedly said they were ready for a discussion on demonetization announced on November 8.

The deadlock occurred as the opposition insisted on debate under a rule that entails voting, which was not acceptable to the ruling side. "This is not a good thing for all of us and this maligns our image in the eyes of people," said the Speaker, expressing hope that future sessions would be more fruitful and productive and witness constructive debates and discussions.

"I am hopeful of getting support of all political parties and members," she said. The Speaker regretted that 21 sittings of the House lasted only 19 hours which saw 50 of the total 440 starred being answered on the floor and members raising 124 issues of urgent public importance. 11% of the questions could be answered orally. This was the least productive Question Hour of the 16th Lok Sabha, PRS said.

The Speaker said though a discussion on demonetization of currency notes was on the agenda under 193 that does not entail voting, but only partial debate could take place. As deadlock between government and opposition persisted, an attempt was made to initiate the debate under Rule 193 which does not entail voting.

TRS leader AP Jeethender Reddy tried to speak twice but members of some opposition parties, particularly Trinamool Congress, scuttled the bid by creating pandemonium. According to a press release issued by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, 10 bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha.

Since June 2014, the Lok Sabha has passed 83 bills and spent 216 hours discussing them. On the other hand, Rajya Sabha has passed 73 Bills with a total discussion time of 121 hours. Lok Sabha has discussed 63% of the bills for more than 2 hours while Rajya Sabha has discussed 34% of the bills, the PRS Legislative said. Veteran Parliamentarian and BJP stalwart LK Advani expressed deep anguish over the way Parliament was being run and even remarked on Thursday that he felt like resigning.