House repairs if and this is a big if there’s political consensus there are ways to make parliament a more edifying forum

House repairs if and this is a big if there’s political consensus there are ways to make parliament a more edifying forum

The monsoon session of Parliament adjourned sine die on Wednesday, following ugly scenes of jostling between MPs and marshals in the Rajya Sabha. It was the fourth consecutive session that ended before its scheduled close. Data compiled by PRS Legislative Research makes for grim reading. Marked by repeated disruptions, it functioned for less than a quarter of the allocated time. Yet, in all, 20 bills were passed, which is a reflection on the lack of adequate debate before citizens and businesses are forced to adjust to new laws. To illustrate, on average, Lok Sabha passed a bill in 34 minutes and Rajya Sabha in 46 minutes.

There is enough blame to go around, but the opposition appeared to be in a disruptive mood this time. It seemed even if Pegasus was discussed the opposition may have disrupted the house over another issue. The sad state of affairs is not new. This suggests a structural problem. There are ways of changing things for the better. In India, the Speaker’s post comes with enormous discretionary power, which is the source of some of the problems. Even the first Lok Sabha’s Speaker, GV Mavalankar, faced a no-confidence motion and irrespective of the party, many of his successors have had their decisions questioned. There’s a case to reduce the Speaker’s discretion in areas such as an adjournment motion, which deals with matters of urgent public importance. A shift to a more rules-based approach here will minimise the incentive for the opposition to resort to disruptions.

But disruptions are just one part of the problem. The other issue is the lack of adequate debate that results in poor quality legislation. Parliament works through multiple multi-partisan committees to deal with granular aspects of bills. This system’s breaking down. For example, none of the 15 bills introduced in the monsoon session were referred to a parliamentary committee. Consequently, we neither have a meaningful debate in Parliament nor a thorough discussion in a committee. Perhaps, the impasse over farm reform legislations could have been avoided had they been referred to the relevant committee. How can all this change be achieved? Only via consensus. There lies the rub.