"Namaste Khargeji", speaker Sumitra Mahahan said smiling as the Lok Sabha met on a day Congress was agitated over incidents of communal violence and seeking adjournment of the question hour. The greeting to the leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge was an apparent appeal. The question hour continued amidst furore.
Meanwhile, in Rajya Sabha Opposition was raising the UPSC issue managing to disrupt the question hour. The House of Elders, where the Opposition is in an audible majority, seems to have lagged behind the Lower House in terms of productivity, particularly during question hour, in the ongoing budget session of parliament which began on July 7.
Till August 6, question hour functioned for 17 hours in Lok Sabha, which has 315 first-time MPs, and only six-and-a-half hours in Rajya Sabha, according to the PRS legislative Research analysis.
In Lok Sabha, where the ruling side has the numerical muscle, morning disruptions have been less making way for 96 questions to be answered orally as against just 50 in Rajya Sabha. The overall productivity of Lok Sabha during the session so far has been 102% and the Rajya Sabha 96%, according to the PRS.
Lok Sabha sources said as per data till August 31, the Lok Sabha lost 12-17 hours in disruption but the House put in over 20 hours of extra time to compensate. The House functioned for 104.41 hours, they said.
This is in sharp contrast to the 15th Lok Sabha which functioned an average of just 61% of the scheduled time.
However, in terms of discussing legislation, the Upper House has spent around six hours and the Lok Sabha a little over five hours.
The lack of numbers for the Modi government in the Upper House has not just reflected in the morning disruptions by Opposition over issues like media reports on bugging at Union minister Nitin Gadkari's House and UPSC, but also in stalling the bill to raise FDI cap in insurance sector.
A BJP leader said the Congress was fighting its battle over the issue of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha in Rajya Sabha. With the Congress lacking the required one-tenth the strength in Lok Sabha to get the LoP status, it has not been granted the post.
The government, which is dependent on support from the parties in the Opposition in Rajya Sabha for passage of bills, has lined up other legislations, including three labour-related ones to be taken up in the session ending on August 14.
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