With Parliament facing repeated adjournments, the Congress on Friday said the big mystery is why the government is not resisting the interruptions and instead facilitating the aggression of the INDIA parties especially on the Adani issue.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the government has much to feel defensive and apologetic about.
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“Yet another day of a washout in the Parliament. Both Houses adjourned today after only a few minutes. The big mystery is why the government is not resisting the adjournments,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
“On the contrary, the government is facilitating the aggression of the INDIA parties… . Clearly it has much to feel defensive and apologetic about,” the Congress leader said.
His remarks came soon after Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Friday as opposition MPs protested the rejection of adjournment notices for a discussion on allegations against the Adani Group, and the violence in Manipur and Sambhal.
Soon after laying of listed papers in the morning session, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar said he had received 17 notices for adjournment of scheduled business under Rule 267 of the House. The Chairman said he was rejecting all the notices.
This led to a protest by several opposition MPs who began raising slogans. Expressing anguish, Dhankhar said, “I call upon you (MPs) for deep reflection. Rule 267 is being weaponised as a mechanism of disruption”.
The remark was protested by opposition MPs including those belonging to the Congress.
Before adjourning the proceedings for the day, he said similar issues had been raised repeatedly, leading to a loss of three working days.
Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till noon on Friday following vociferous protests by Opposition members over the Adani controversy and the recent violence in Sambhal in UP. Later, the Lower House was also adjourned for the day.
In this article, let’s deliberate on the financial repercussions of Parliament disruptions which impact both public resources and the productivity of the nation’s parliamentary functioning. It may be noted that Parliament conducts three major sessions annually and they are as follows… the Budget session from February to May, the Monsoon session from July to September, and the Winter Session from November to December.
Parliament also operates for around 100 days annually, with each session lasting about six hours each day.
However, disruptions in these sessions have had a significant impact. For example, in 2016, nearly 90 hours of Parliamentary time were lost to disruptions, resulting in an estimated financial loss of a whopping Rs 144 crore!
The breakup of this figure will reveal that it included Rs 138 crore for the functioning of the sessions, as well as Rs 6 crore for salaries and allowances. The cost of running Parliament is also high, with estimates showing that, in 2012, the cost per minute of Parliament’s operation was Rs 2.5 lakh and considering the inflation, this cost has risen manifold.
Let’s take a look at the parliamentary disruptions
*A PRS (PRS Legislative Research) report says that during the 15th Lok Sabha (2009-14), frequent disruptions of Parliamentary proceedings have resulted in the Lok Sabha working for 61% and Rajya Sabha for 66% of its scheduled time.
*Another PRS report said, the 16th Lok Sabha (2014-19) lost 16% of its scheduled time to disruptions, better than the 15th Lok Sabha (37%), but worse than the 14th Lok Sabha (13%).
*The Rajya Sabha lost 36% of its scheduled time. In the 15th and 14th Lok Sabhas, it had lost 32% and 14% of its scheduled time respectively.
It may be recalled that in August 2021, during the Pegasus row, the Opposition stalled the proceedings of Parliament which could function only 18 hours out of the actual allotted 107 hours.
However, if one considers this loss in monetary terms, it will be clear how public money has been “utilised” (pun intended).
Following the Centre’s decision to bring in the demonetisation, Opposition stalled the Winter Session of Parliament in December 2016 and if a report by IndiaSpend is taken into consideration, “Based on salaries, perks and the cost of running Parliament, about Rs 144 crore (Rs 138 crore on running the houses plus Rs 6 crore as salaries and perks paid) was lost due to disruptions during this winter session.”
In 2021, more than Rs 133 crore of taxpayer money was wasted during the Monsoon Session because of disruptions.
In 2012, when Congress-led UPA was in power, the entire Monsoon Session was completely washed out over the controversy on coal block allocations. And the UPA government had released an official figure according to which each minute of running parliament during sessions costs the exchequer Rs 2.5 lakh.
However, even if we have discussed adjournments so far… we must also acknowledge the fact that our lawmakers have had sessions comprising smooth functioning of Parliament. The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha has been a role model in this regard. According to the PRS report, during the Budget Session of Parliament from June 17, 2019, to August 7, 2019, Lok Sabha worked for 281 hours, which was 135 per cent of the scheduled hours. This was higher than any other session of Parliament in the past 20 years.
On an average, Lok Sabha has worked for 81 per cent of its scheduled time in the past 20 years. Rajya Sabha worked for 195 hours, which is 100 percent of the scheduled hours. On average, Rajya Sabha has worked for 76 per cent of its scheduled time during a session in the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, let’s see what the PRS analysis states about short-duration discussions…
“The number of short-duration discussions (under Rule 193) initiated in Parliament has decreased over the last few Lok Sabha sessions… There were 59 such discussions in the 13th Lok Sabha (Vajpayee era), which declined to 55, 41 (Manmohan Singh’s tenures of 2004 to 2009 and 2009-2014) and 33 (2014-19) in the last three Lok Sabhas, and further to six in the three-and-a-half years of the current Lok Sabha (17th).”
Isn’t it high-time that our lawmakers rise above partisan interests, avoid political squabbles, and use Parliament for constructive deliberations and to eventually make laws? After all, when will they realise that it is the hard-earned taxpayers’ money that is being wasted.
(Writer is Senior
Journalist and former
senior Associate Editor,
O Heraldo, Goa)
