On Friday, the government announced the revised schedule for the Budget Session, which is the fourth session of the current Eighth Legislative Assembly, and cut short the session from five to four days, in view of the Ram Navami celebrations on March 30. As expected, the Opposition MLAs are up in arms against the government for curtailing the duration of the session and once again hammering down the opportunities of the Opposition to corner the government.
However, this isn’t the first time a budget session will be held only for four days nor it is the first time that after announcing a certain duration of the session, the session is cut short. But, what is surprising is that despite having an absolute 4/5 majority in the Assembly, the BJP-led government has been cutting short the duration of the Assembly sessions.
In view of how the Parliament sessions had turned non-functional, in March 2021, Legislative Researcher Chakshu Roy wrote in a column for a national daily, “The first casualty of a non-functioning Parliament is accountability of the government. Question Hour, where Members of Parliament (MPs) quiz ministers about the functioning of their ministries, is the most visible mechanism for this… The second casualty is Parliament’s ability to debate the budget and scrutinise pending bills.”
Subsequent governments in Goa have ensured that the Assembly sessions are short and therefore the MLAs, due to want of time, are forced to play to the gallery and raise only issues to which their voter base would attach itself. Thus, vital issues which concern the State’s long term prospects are sidelined. A glance at the working of the Assemblies reveals that none of the governments – atleast in the past two decades – have met for more than 30 days in a calendar year. The last longest session of the Assembly was the monsoon session of 2019 for 20 days, between July 15 and August 9.
During the last four years, Goa has faced major catastrophes including the global Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of the healthcare system leading to a large number of deaths during the pandemic, and also the ever-increasing unemployment numbers apart from the environment-related issues which still haunt the State.
The forthcoming session is an important session given that the budget will be presented and the State’s economic status and the future will be deliberated. However, by cutting down the session, the government is ensuring that the MLAs, especially those from the Opposition, who are just seven in number, can be sidelined and those from the treasury benches do not cause hiccups for the government.
The Pramod Sawant-led government, taking advantage of the absolute majority it enjoys in the Assembly, should have course corrected the shortcomings of his first term in office during the Seventh Assembly after the demise of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
Goa’s debt has spiked multiple-folds, with nearly one-third of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), and the government should have provided sufficient time not just to the Opposition benches but also to the members of the treasury benches to study the budget and provide inputs that would enhance the economic status of the State.
Having absolute numbers in the Legislature does not provide the government of the day with the protective cover to carry on business as it deems fit for the party in power. India has witnessed that despite an absolute majority, governments that faltered have had to vacate the benches even before their term concluded.
Governments are guardians of the institutions in a democracy and the functioning of the Legislature is equally important as the Executive and the Judiciary. Democracy is not just about winning elections, and announcing and executing schemes as part of governance, but being accountable to the people of the State in the temple of Democracy, that is the Legislative Assembly.
