Missing Parliament?

Even when they are true, figures are an unreliable basis for shock and indignation. They sanitise absences and failures. But look again and it’s a pretty spectacular abdication: only 11 of the slotted 25 bills were passed in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Lok Sabha lost 40 per cent of its time due to adjournments and the Rajya Sabha lost 49 per cent. As many as four bills were passed without discussion in the Lok Sabha. Look closer and the figures record a slide. If Lok Sabha worked 124 hours in Monsoon Session 2006, it worked only 65 hours in Monsoon Session ‘07. For the Rajya Sabha, the dip is by more than half. If bills passed were 17 in Monsoon Session ‘06, they were 11 in Monsoon Session ‘07. Something awful has been happening to India’s Parliament. The latest episode — Monday’s sine die adjournment, four days ahead of schedule, after an adjournment a day — is a confirmation.

That is what makes the fuss about the nuclear deal in Parliament more ironical. Parliament has been either unwilling or unable to clear legislation that has been pending before it — the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill since 2005, or The Indian Boilers (Amendment) Bill since 1994, to take just two examples. But it has been all convulsed and eventually paralysed over a pact it isn’t even constitutionally empowered to scrutinise. When MPs on the Opposition benches work up outrage over the lack of a JPC on the Indo-US nuclear deal, therefore, or insist that there be a discussion on it that is followed by a vote or else, their bad faith shows. It has been a long time since Parliament was accorded the respect and dignity it deserves in a vibrant democracy. And as crucial issues of public importance habitually bypass the House and play themselves out in their shorthand versions in TV studios, we may be in danger of becoming inured to the absence of a functioning Parliament.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee is right. Parliamentarians need to soberly think about the institution’s “utility” and its “future”. There’s also an argument, as our columnist today makes, about revising the resource and incentive structure for MPs to prioritise good legislative debates. Now that the session has been curtailed, and before everyone is overtaken by a mid-term poll that is said to be in the offing, let MPs ponder this and other issues. Because parliamentary conduct is encouraging a frightening question in our parliamentary democracy: who misses Parliament, anyway?