Winter session: MPs, please get serious, you've got a job to do

“Please get serious. You have got a job to do.” That’s probably what speaker Meira Kumar would politely remind the honourable parliamentarians when she meets them today, to work out ways to have a smooth and purposeful winter session. The rest of the country would agree with her, although it would prefer her message to be put forth in a nastier tone. And, with good reason. Our parliamentarians have not exactly made us proud with their conduct in the august House — imagine those scenes where members are perennially busy in outshouting each other, rushing to the well, staging walkouts and playing obstructionists — showing no inclination to debate serious issues concerning the people they represent. [caption id=“attachment_133627” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“In the monsoon session, the Lok Sabha lost 33 percent of its allotted time and the Rajya Sabha 38 percent. Reuters”] [/caption] Let’s check the numbers. In the monsoon session, the Lok Sabha lost 33 percent of its allotted time and the Rajya Sabha 38 percent. During the budget session, which began on February 22 and ended on May 7, with a month-long break for the assembly polls in four states, the Lok Sabha lost 36.6 percent of its scheduled time, while the Rajya Sabha lost 28 percent. The winter session last year was a virtual washout because of the turmoil over the 2G scandal. The result is the delay in clearance of important bills. If the overwhelming impression in several sectors is that there’s policy paralysis in the country — the industry sector just made the pitch a few days ago and others have been discussing it for close to two years — the blame rests solely on our parliamentarians. As many as 81 bills, including the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, were supposed to be discussed in the monsoon session. Only 10 of them got passed and 13 others introduced. This time, there are 30-odd bills awaiting Parliament’s attention. These include important ones such as the Lokpal Bill, the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, the Public Interest Disclosure Bill and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill. However, with assembly polls round the corner and parties out to score political points, there’s little hope of all the bills getting due justice. It is expected that parties will be back to disrupting the house and give us a replay of the earlier sessions. Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has already tweeted out that her party has given notices for discussions on several issues, including Telengana, price rise, the Manipur blockade and death of children due to encephalitis in Uttar Pradesh. The issues will certainly make the session stormy. Of course, there is the Lokpal Bill, the heat over which might upset all the calculation the government might have for a smooth session. Anna Hazare and his team are likely to hit the streets if they are not satisfied with the Lokpal Bill finally cleared by the standing committee. It could lead to a whole lot of political posturing and shenanigans, finally hitting the clearance of bills. There is no simple way to make our politicians see reason. Given the climate of political acrimony and intensity of adversarial politics, one cannot expect things to change. That such indifference has led to erosion of public faith — in their representatives, the institution of Parliament itself and made people rise in revolts of various intensity across the country — has not sunk deep into their consciousness. Possibly, the political class is too complacent about their inevitability and irreplaceability in the democracy. But the end losers in this game of brinkmanship are the country and its people. Hope they take note of that this session and make it count.