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Revealed! Who disrupted Parliament more, UPA or NDA?

In the first five sessions of the BJP-led NDA, Lok Sabha functioned for 704 of 711 hours available while in these sessions during Congress-led UPA, the House recorded productive time of 549 hours against 768 hours of scheduled time, as per PRS legislative research data.

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Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi
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Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his predecessors too have castigated disruptive tactics in Parliament. BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee disapproved of members going into the well of the House and Congress's Manmohan Singh called stalling of Parliament negation of democracy.

Quoting former Prime Ministers -- Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi on disruption in Parliament -- Modi took on the Congress while replying to the motion of thanks on the President's address in Lok Sabha.

But, statistics show that the current Lok Sabha has lost less time, going by average of productivity in sessions since the Modi regime came to power in May, 2014, in comparison with the second term of the Congress-led UPA.

In the first five sessions of the BJP-led NDA, Lok Sabha functioned for 704 of 711 hours available while in these sessions during Congress-led UPA, the House recorded productive time of 549 hours against 768 hours of scheduled time, as per PRS legislative research data. In Rajya Sabha, where the Opposition outnumbers the treasury benches, the performance in the previous regime was marginally better during this period.

The 2015 Budget Session recorded the highest percentage of working hours at 122% in Lok Sabha and 101% in Rajya Sabha over the past 20 sessions of Parliament. The maximum time lost in a session in this period was in the UPA regime in the winter of 2010, when the Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into 2G spectrum scam paralysed both houses ending up in 94% time lost in Lok Sabha and 98% in Rajya Sabha. This was worse than the last monsoon session when Lok Sabha lost 55% time and Rajya Sabha 91%, with Opposition demanding resignations of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Lalit Modi row and Vyapam scam. The ongoing budget session has recorded 108 per cent productive hours till March 3, according to PRS.

PRS legislative research data

The government's contention is that the reasons for disruption varied. "There was a difference then and now. We raised concerns about 2G spectrum, coal block allocations, CWG etc, but the government first took a rigid stand before agreeing to our demands. Here, we are taking a positive approach and agreeing to their demands so disruption is unfair," said minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Productivity in the last Lok Sabha under UPA II was the worst in five decades with the Opposition stalling business over issues like 2G scam, irregularities in coal block, FDI in multi-brand retail and appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner. The Lok Sabha functioned for 61% of the time and Rajya Sabha 66 per cent, according to PRS. Under the current regime, so far, Lok Sabha has functioned for nearly 99% of the available time and Rajya Sabha around 72%.

The Opposition argued that government was taking a confrontationist position rather than reaching out to it. "The stark fact is that BJP leaders are not used to democratic temperament and therefore, do not know how to behave with opposition in a democracy. They do not have any faith in consensus building, spirit of accommodation or give & take," leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

"BJP government perhaps thinks that decisive electoral mandate automatically authorises it to brazenly ignore the opposition and forget the niceties and decencies of parliamentary democracy. That is why it seems to bulldoze Parliament and brazen out most defiantly, notwithstanding the outrage and uneasiness in the country," Azad said.

According to Congress statistics, in the first eight sessions of UPA, "sitting time" lost to disruptions had reached 38 per cent. Compared to 297 bills during the 13th Lok Sabha, when the BJP-led NDA was in power, the UPA II could pass only 179 out of its planned 328 bills.

RSP's NK Premachandran said, "Modi government is not taking opposition into confidence or connecting with it. HRD minister Smriti Irani provoked the Opposition, BJP brought a privilege motion notice to counter the opposition which had given one against the minister and government has now made Aadhaar a money bill to avoid the Upper House."

He recalled that BJP's Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, as leaders of Opposition, argued that disruption was also part of democracy. "They are now saying debate is part of democracy, but the BJP should first apologise for its earlier behaviour and say it was wrong," he said.

Modi, a first-time MP, was then Gujarat chief minister, but his senior ministers -- Jaitley and Swaraj -- were in the forefront of the Opposition campaign that had stalled both houses over a series of scams in the UPA regime. They, in turn, had reminded the Congress of how it had stalled Parliament over the coffins issue during Vajpayee's regime.

Leaders across the aisle have been putting the blame of disruption on the other, just as the opposition, whichever that may be, has put the onus of running parliament on the government.

Modi had ended his combative speech with an appeal to "work together". It is to be seen which message leaves a deeper impact on the other side.

 

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