The Winter Session of Parliament, which begins today, will in all likelihood be a “stormy” one, as newspapers often describe the opening of nearly every session of the national legislature. But more important, will it be productive in terms of laws passed and debates on key issues?
Parliament has effectively been stalled ever since last year’s Winter Session. The long respite from parliamentary work unfortunately reinforces the feeling that our MPs do little work but expect remuneration. The absence of legislation in the past year has had a negative impact on the economy. Important bills are ready but cannot be moved. The same holds true for other areas of governance.
This isn’t always the fault of individual MPs. It is more due to the fractious party system we have developed over the years: our parties have long forgotten the skills of give and take, of negotiating through critical differences in the larger interest of the country. They prefer to grandstand, making relatively minor issues appear large. Since there are so many constituencies to please in our diverse country, and some election or the other takes place all year round, parties are busy trying to score over opponents via name-calling. The legislature’s crucial lawmaking function is almost forgotten, or ignored. Our political system appears to be failing us utterly. Indeed, it is “broke”, to quote US President Barack Obama, who said much the same thing about America not long ago. The time may have come for the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman to think of innovations so that the two Houses can navigate their way through troughs and shallows more purposively. But the real responsibility lies with the party leaders.
If the parties in Parliament don’t rise above narrow partisan considerations, the passage of crucial economic measures, and of the Lokpal Bill — which has caused so much tumult in the past one year — is likely to be seriously impacted. This in turn will have an adverse effect on the functioning of the government as well as on the politics of the future. The UPA’s managers will do well to negotiate with the Opposition parties every step of the way. The Opposition, in turn, could be playing with fire if it decides to make it hard to pass the proposed Lokpal law in order to create the impression that the government is not serious. Its decision on Monday to boycott home minister P. Chidambaram in Parliament from today over the 2G spectrum issue is extremely ill-advised. The politics of discord might be attractive to some with a number of Assembly elections due in a few months. But the ruling coalition, which has more at stake, would be wise to reshape its parliamentary tactics.