According to the Secretariat, the productivity of the Lok Sabha was almost 58 percent
New Delhi:
Parliament adjourned for good on Friday, ending a tumultuous session that saw a robust debate on the country's constitutional journey and the introduction of two landmark bills on simultaneous elections, before plunging to a new low of political hostility over the alleged insult to BR Ambedkar.
As Parliament convened on the last day of the winter session, the prevailing mutual acrimony between the ruling National Democratic Alliance and opposition parties after Thursday's row persisted, forcing Speaker Om Birla in Lok Sabha to adjourn the House within three minutes without even but to give the usual summary. of the highlights of the session.
Things were only slightly better in Rajya Sabha as Opposition parties, which have been protesting against Home Minister Amit Shah's alleged insulting remarks against Ambedkar, agreed to let Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar read out his farewell speech before adjourning the House for good.
According to the Secretariat, the productivity of the Lok Sabha was close to 58 per cent, a far cry from the days when it hovered around 100 per cent and even above.
In his closing remarks, Dhankhar called on parties to rise above political differences and restore the sanctity of parliamentary discourse, setting a tone of balance amid opposition accusations of often being biased.
He said the House functioned effectively for only 43 hours and 27 minutes with a productivity of only 40.03 percent during the Winter Session that began on November 25.
At a press conference, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju blamed the opposition, especially the Congress. He said their continued protest despite a previous agreement to allow Parliament to rule was the main reason for low productivity.
He said all parties must reflect on what is an issue of great importance, adding that as minister in charge of parliamentary affairs he will continue to engage with opposition leaders.
During the session, five bills were introduced in Lok Sabha, of which four were passed. The Rajya Sabha has passed three bills. A special session was also held at the 'Samvidhan Sadan' to commemorate Constitution Day on November 26.
Thursday's pushing and shoving involving MPs from rival parties, which left two BJP members hospitalized and led to a police case against Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, was the low point of the session, a spirited exchange about the 'glorious journey'. of 75 years of the Constitution of India” for two days in each House reflected the best of the parliamentary debate.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sharp criticism of the Congress, and especially the Nehru-Gandhi family, for the 'corruption' of constitutional values was heard by the Opposition Benches in the Lok Sabha without any serious disruption, as was Minister's reply of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, at the debate. in Rajya Sabha.
Opposition parties, however, seized on a few sentences from Shah's response to accuse him of insulting BR Ambedkar, the architect of India's constitution, and launched protests inside and outside parliament.
The BJP-led NDA MPs led counter-protests, accusing the Congress of belittling Ambedkar and ignoring his legacy during the long decades it was in power.
As Modi led the defense of Shah and the counter-attack on the Congress, political tension built up on both sides, culminating in an ugly row on the Parliament premises on Thursday. Both parties filed police complaints against each other and an FIR was registered against Gandhi, who was blamed by the BJP for injuries to two of its MPs.
Speaker Birla warned all parties against holding protests at the entrance, the site of Thursday's row, of Parliament.
Opposition parties filed breach of privilege charges against Shah in both Houses, while the BJP did the same against Rahul Gandhi.
Rijiju told reporters that it is now up to the respective Speakers of the two Houses to discuss the matter.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said his party's performance in Parliament was “100 percent” as all relevant issues were raised, including the charges in the US against the Adani group, but the government avoided the debate.
Incidentally, it was the government's willingness to hold a discussion on the Constitution that had broken the early deadlock in Parliament as the Congress stuck to its demand for a debate on the Adani row.
Though the opposition INDIA bloc was a divided House, with parties like the Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress disagreeing with the Congress's priority given to the Adani issue, they came together over Shah's comments .
The highlight of the legislative agenda of the session were two landmark bills – the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-ninth) Amendment Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill – to give effect to the mechanism of simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Parliaments. .
It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 17 and referred to a 39-member Joint Committee of Parliament on Thursday.
To further widen the rift between various stakeholders in Parliament, opposition parties filed a call to move a no-confidence motion against Dhankhar, but it was rejected by Rajya Sabha Vice-Chairman Harivansh, who termed the motion as an act of impropriety as it was seriously flawed and hastily put on to tarnish the reputation of the Chairman.
At least 60 opposition members had signed the notice removing Dhankhar from his post on December 10, claiming he was “biased” and that they had no confidence in him.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)