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Journalism of Courage
The Budget Session of Parliament that was adjourned sine die on Thursday recorded the lowest productivity of a Budget Session in five years and the 17th Lok Sabha is likely to record the lowest number of sitting days since 1952.
“Entering the final year of its term, the 17th Lok Sabha has functioned for 230 sitting days so far. Of all the Lok Sabhas that completed the full five-year term, the 16th Lok Sabha had the lowest number of sitting days (331). With one more year remaining in the term, and 58 average sitting days a year, the 17th Lok Sabha is unlikely to sit for more than 331 days. This could make it the shortest full term Lok Sabha since 1952,” PRS Legislative Research has said in a report.
Parliament productivity plummeted amid a slugfest between the Treasury Benches and the government over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent remarks in London and the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue.
The frequent protests by the Opposition and repetitive daily adjournments in both Houses led to a washout of the 25-day-long second leg of the Session, which witnessed limited legislative activity and minimal discussion and saw six bills, including the crucial Finance Bill 2023, being passed without any debate.
When Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar were delivering their valedictory addresses in the respective Houses, Opposition members raised slogans. In his speech, Birla said, “You have lowered the dignity of the House. This behaviour is not good for the parliamentary system and the country”.
While addressing the media, MoS Parliamentary Affairs Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Lok Sabha recorded a productivity of 34 per cent while the Rajya Sabha’s productivity stood at 24.4 per cent during the Budget Session. In this session, the Lok Sabha functioned for only 45.9 hours as against the 133.6 hours scheduled, according to PRS Legislative Research. The Rajya Sabha worked for just over 32.3 hours out of 130 hours.
The Budget session of Parliament was held in two parts — from January 31-April 6 and February 14 to March 12 with a recess in between.
In the Lok Sabha, the productivity of the first part was 83.80 per cent, which dropped to 5.29 per cent in the second half. The House lost 96 hours and 13 minutes of its sitting time to disruptions.
Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar, meanwhile, informed the Upper House that its productivity in the first part of the Budget Session was 56.3 per cent and it plummeted to an “abysmal 6.4 per cent” in the second phase. Cumulatively, the House productivity was only 24.4 per cent, Dhankhar said in his valedictory remarks. Disruptions, he said, claimed 103.5 hours. “Let’s ponder over the dismal performance of the House and find a way out,” he added.
The initial days of the second leg of the Budget Session saw the BJP members disrupting the Houses, demanding an apology from Rahul Gandhi over his remarks in the UK on the state of Indian democracy and the Opposition’s demand for a JPC. Rahul’s disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP added fuel to the fire with the Opposition becoming more aggressive.
The only time the Lok Sabha’s productivity was lower than this was in the Monsoon Session of 2021 when it functioned only for 21 per cent of the scheduled time.
In 2022, the functioning of the Lok Sabha was at 177 hours and in the Rajya Sabha it was 127.6 hours. In 2021, it was 131.8 hours in the Lok Sabha and 104 hours in the Rajya Sabha. Similarly, in 2020, productivity hours for the Lower House were 111.2 and 93.8 hours for the Upper House.
During the first half of this year’s Budget Session, the Lok Sabha devoted a total of 14 hours and 45 minutes to discussing it against the allotted time of 12 hours. In the Rajya Sabha, the general discussion on the Union Budget was cut short and lasted for two hours and 39 minutes over two days, PRS data showed.
Ahead of the session, the government announced its wish to introduce 19 Bills (including one Finance Bill) and pass 10 Bills. However, only eight Bills were introduced, out of which six Bills were passed by the Lower House, and six Bills were passed or returned by the Rajya Sabha. The total number of Bills passed or returned by both Houses was also six, according to PRS data.
“Eight government bills were introduced and six were passed, while 29 questions were answered orally, 133 matters of public importance were raised and 436 matters under rule 377 were discussed. A total of 62 reports from different department-related parliamentary standing committees were tabled before the house,” Birla said.
The Bills passed include The Finance Bill, 2023, The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2023, The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023, The Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023, The Appropriation Bill, 2023 and The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
Excluding the Finance and Appropriation Bills, The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was the only Bill passed during this session. These were passed without any discussion by either House. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023, which was introduced, was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
The number of Bills introduced and passed in the 17th Lok Sabha term has also declined. So far in the 17th Lok Sabha, 150 Bills have been introduced and 131 passed (excluding Finance and Appropriation Bills). Fewer than 10 Bills have been introduced or passed in each of the last four consecutive sessions, PRS data said.
While the Lok Sabha was seen spending 17.3 hours conducting business with financial matters, 2.6 hours were spent by the Rajya Sabha. For non-legislative business, the Lok Sabha spent almost 20 hours and the Rajya Sabha spent over 18 hours.
This session also saw the least amount of time spent on questions in the current Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha could take just questions for 4.32 hours, while the figure for the Rajya Sabha was at 1.85 hours for the entire Budget Session. Only 7 per cent of starred questions were answered in either House, PRS data showed.
