Twenty-one days

There are only 21 working days in the winter session of Parliament,which begins on Tuesday. Yet those 21 days are UPA 2s key chance to reverse course,and the perception of drift. This governments inability to get anything done has become almost a cliche,with its officers unwilling to clear anything,and its floor managers in Parliament apparently unable to get anything even mildly controversial passed. The winter session last year was completely lost to the oppositions protest; the monsoon session this year saw Lokpal-related disruption. Vital legislation has piled up unpassed,and this session cannot be wasted,too. The government has announced an ambitious slate of reforms: the new mining regulatory bill; several bills regulating and reforming higher education; the long-delayed companies bill,the judicial accountability bill,and of course the Lokpal bill.

Most of these are in some sense overdue. Many of these will require the Congress to be persuasive,to reach out across the aisle to the BJP and other opposition parties,and to manage its own allies well. Over 50 bills need to be discussed in this session; over half of them need to be passed. Some,such as the Lokpal bill,are bound to be controversial; but on others,like the judicial accountability bill,a political consensus exists and on yet others,like the mining bill,it should be easy to build consensus. The pension bill,which has just been cleared by the Cabinet,is a good start but,even though the BJP and the Congress supposedly agree on reforms in the pension sector,that the final draft does not include some suggestions made by the parliamentary committee should be cause for bipartisan dialogue,not a flashpoint. Good political management over the next few weeks would lie in ensuring such minor disagreements do not obscure the larger grounds of agreement.

The opposition has signalled its desire to hold the government to account over inflation and corruption. That is,no doubt,its job. But it has to recognise that holding a government to account cannot mean disrupting the working of Parliament endlessly; it requires being engaged with the lawmaking process,and with the scrutiny of government action. That requires not holding up sessions of either House,but instead ensuring their smooth functioning. It is in the interest of both government and opposition that this winter session be effective. Hopefully they will act on their interest,and not give way to short-sighted opportunism.