The winter session of Parliament that concluded on Friday was the least productive in the last 15 years. While disruption of parliamentary business has unfortunately become the new normal, even cynics will shake their heads in disbelief over the way the venerable members of Parliament conducted themselves in the last session. As against an average productivity of 92 per cent for the 16th Lok Sabha and 71 per cent for the Rajya Sabha, during the winter session the Lok Sabha worked for merely 15 per cent of its scheduled time and the Rajya Sabha 18 per cent. A similar disorder was last seen in 2010, when the Bharatiya Janata Party, then in the Opposition benches, demanded the setting up of a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the 2G scandal. Clearly, no one party is solely responsible. Public anguish has been dramatically highlighted by President Pranab Mukherjee’s recent reprimand to MPs, “for god’s sake, do your work”.
Going into the session, it was natural that the Opposition would want a thorough debate on the demonetisation decision and the government would find a way to allow this. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi is convinced that the move is for the benefit of the country, as he has stressed repeatedly outside Parliament, the BJP’s floor managers should have negotiated a truce with the Opposition to let the House function and explain to the people’s representatives why this move was merited. Instead, political theatre played out in streets and podiums. Mr Modi resorted to claiming helplessness and saying in countless public meetings across the country that he was addressing “jan sabhas” as the Opposition did not allow him to speak in the Lok Sabha. This reflects poorly on his ability to take fellow parliamentarians along. To be sure, the Opposition is equally to blame. After wasting the whole session in exchanging political jibes and threats (Rahul Gandhi’s empty rhetoric about personal information about the PM’s corruption was just one example), Congress leaders, including Mr Gandhi, decided to meet the PM in the latter’s office in Parliament, purportedly to discuss farmer’s woes. It begs the question: If the leaders of the two main parties could meet across the table, why couldn’t they debate across the floor?
This does not bode well for the country for two reasons. One, there are costs attached to this failure — not just the money spent in running a dysfunctional Parliament but also in the form of delays in carrying out legislative business. Two, this charade of accusations and counter-accusations and the propensity to rely on one-sided communication channels such as social media platforms and political rallies severely undermines the democratic accountability that a Parliament is supposed to provide. Standalone tweets and press releases cannot replace the richness of a live parliamentary debate, where the electorate can hear both sets of arguments and make up their mind. More than elections, it is this daily parliamentary accountability that is the true reflection of a working democracy. This shameful washout should force MPs to introspect on how badly they are failing the institution they represent. With demonetisation-related pain likely to continue well into the next year, as things stand, if MPs do not reconsider their approach, it might be difficult to rule out more such disruptions and that is the last thing the Indian economy needs at a time when there is no dearth of uncertainty.