World Insights: Indian parliament's monsoon session sees chaos in world's "largest democracy"
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E-mail Xinhua, August 30, 2021
by Peerzada Arshad Hamid
NEW DELHI, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Indian parliament's monsoon session witnessed massive protests as government and opposition lawmakers faced off.
The monsoon session began on July 19 and ended on Aug. 11, two days ahead of a schedule with both the Lok Sabha (lower house) and Rajya Sabha (upper house) getting adjourned.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lashed out at the opposition parties especially Congress for stalling proceedings in parliament, the opposition lawmakers blamed the government for stifling their voices on issues pertaining to people.
The impasse led to adjournments almost on a daily basis.
ISSUES OF CONTENTION
The most contentious issues include the Pegasus snooping spyware scandal and the controversial farm laws.
The Indian government has been accused of allowing Israeli Pegasus spyware, which was sold only to governments, to target opposition politicians, journalists and activists. The Modi administration denied all allegations.
Discussions about the snooping scandal in parliament took an ugly turn, when some opposition lawmakers climbed onto the benches, tore apart official papers and raised slogans against the government. They were dragged out by security staff deployed in full strength inside the upper house.
Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, said there was a "war-like atmosphere" inside the house as the marshals manhandled women lawmakers.
The security staff was deployed in a cross-gendered manner: male marshals were positioned near women lawmakers and female officers near male legislators.
Several legislations were passed by voice votes in a matter of minutes without any discussion.
ENDLESS FINGER-POINTING
Venkaiah Naidu, chairman of Rajya Sabha, condemned what he described "sacrilege."
He was referring to the chaos at the parliament.
"I am distressed by the way the sacredness was destroyed yesterday. When some members sat on the table, some members climbed on the table of the house, perhaps to be more visible with such acts of sacrilege," he said at the end of the session.
Naidu said the opposition members could have voiced objections to the farm laws in a proper way.
"But it is for the government to act. You cannot force the government to do this or not do this," he said.
Naidu's comments evoked strong responses from the opposition, who accused him of siding with the government.
Days after the suspension of parliament ahead of the schedule, lawmakers of the opposition parties staged a demonstration and set out on a march in protest.
The lawmakers accused the government of muzzling the voice of the opposition in the parliament.
"Parliament session is over. As far as 60 percent of the country is concerned, there was no parliament session. Voice of 60 percent population was crushed and humiliated in parliament," opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told media.
GOVERNMENT, OPPOSITION FACEOFF
During the initial days of the monsoon session, Modi was forced to cut short his speech as opposition lawmakers resorted to heavy sloganeering and prevented him from introducing his new ministers.
A week into the monsoon session, disruptions and adjournments were repeated every day. Modi asked his lawmakers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to expose the opposition parties including the Congress for not allowing the parliament to function.
Modi gave instructions to his lawmakers while addressing a meeting of the BJP's parliamentary party.
Modi blamed the Congress for deliberately fending off attempts at resolving an impasse and hampering work in this parliament session.
After the fights in upper house failed to die down, leader of the house and federal commerce minister Piyush Goyal accused an opposition lawmaker of trying to "strangulate" a lady security officer and demanded strict action against him.
INDIA'S DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS
India's parliamentary democracy was in crisis, said Chakshu Roy, head of legislative and civic engagement PRS Legislative Research, an independent research institute to make the Indian legislative process better informed, more transparent and participatory.
He said what happened were "warning signs that parliamentary functioning needs an urgent overhaul," adding that "If this pattern continues, the new parliament building will be a modern and spacious venue for a dysfunctional institution."
"Amid continuing disruptions, Lok Sabha, on an average, took less than 10 minutes to pass a law, and Rajya Sabha passed each law in less than half an hour. The passage of these laws was more in form than in substance. In Lok Sabha, there were 13 bills in which no member of parliament spoke other than the minister in charge of the bill," said Roy.
The government introduced 11 bills in the session and pushed them through parliament without scrutiny by standing committees, according to Roy.
"Only 12 percent of the government's legal proposals have been sent to committees for scrutiny in the current Lok Sabha. This number was 27 percent in the 16th (2014-19), 71 percent in the 15th (2009-14) and 60 percent in the 14th (2004-09) Lok Sabha," he writes.
PRODUCTIVITY LOWEST
The government's refusal to engage in the parliament debate saw strikingly low productivity this session.
The total time lost due to interruptions or forced adjournments in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session was 74 hours and 46 minutes, data from the Lok Sabha secretariat shows.
According to the data, the total number of sitting hours during this monsoon session was 21 hours and 14 minutes -- the lowest since 2019.
This monsoon session, the sixth of the 17th Lok Sabha, turned out to be the least productive of Modi's second term.
The Rajya Sabha lost 76 hours and 26 minutes due to disruptions and functioned for 28 hours and 21 minutes, data from the Rajya Sabha secretariat showed.
"Of course, the Indian parliament has had a sorry history of being unproductive as an institution. Unfortunately, the monsoon session is not proving to be an exception," commented a local daily The Telegraph in its editorial.
"Data suggest that repeated disruptions have led to over 80 percent of parliament's time being wasted, with the two houses clocking an abysmal 17 percent productivity. The consequences can be ominous for public welfare and democracy," said the opinion piece.
While saying "this absence of deliberation goes against the democratic ethos," the newspaper also said at the moment Modi leads an "obtuse, arrogant dispensation that seems to believe that debate is entirely dispensable." Enditem
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