Budget session: highs and lows

The government’s assurance to bring the Lokpal Bill also remained unfulfilled with the Rajya Sabha referring the much-talked about anti-corruption measure to a Select Committee at the fag end of the session.

Ruling party members from Telangana were suspended for four days in an unprecedented action with the Congress taking the lead.

It followed a rare development of the MPs from the Telangana region repeatedly disrupting proceedings in support of their demand for a separate state as the House discussed Finance Bills.

The Opposition time and again objected to the spectacle of ruling party members obstructing the House.

Incidentally,the session also saw Parliament celebrating the 60th anniversary of its first sitting which saw members expressing concern over growing disruptions.

Unlike several sessions in the recent past including of the 15th Lok Sabha,which saw repeated disruption,stalling of Parliament for days and even a wash-out of an entire session on the 2G spectrum issue,the Budget Session was a relatively peaceful affair.

It saw a record number of 34 sittings spread over 181 hours,the most for the current Lok Sabha. It also saw passage of 21 Bill,but most of them considered to be minor legislations.

Key big ticket legislations like the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill,the Insurance Bill and the Companies Bill were not brought before Parliament due to differences on

certain issues.

The first part of this Budget Session commenced on March 12 with the address by President Pratibha Patil to the members of both the Houses.

The House adjourned on March 30,after the presentation of the General Budget and the Railway Budget to enable the Standing Committees to examine the Demands for Grants of various ministries.

Trivedi presented the Railway Budget on March 14 and announced a slew of measures to improve the functioning of railways,including a hike in passenger fares.

This did not go down well with his party Trinamool Congress which asked him to step down and Mukul Roy replaced him. A number of measures announced by Trivedi were rolled back.

The second part of the Budget session,which began on April 24,saw the passage of the Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bill.

The Session had 34 sittings spread over 181 hours 38 minutes of which 14 sittings were held in the first part and 20 sittings were held in the second part of the Session.

During the Session,21 Government Bills were passed,including the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill and the Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill.

The issue of coalition politics came to the fore when Congress allies refused to back the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) hub,forcing the government to keep it on hold.

Three amendments proposed by the Opposition during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address were defeated in the Lok Sabha.

The penultimate day saw Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presenting a ‘Whitepaper on Blackmoney’ in Parliament,which the Opposition claimed had no substance.

Parliament also saw fresh allegations being made against Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G scam which gave some tense moments to the government.

As it was grappling with this issue,publication of a 60-year-old cartoon portraying B R Ambedkar in a CBSE textbook took Parliament by storm. This forced HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to order the removal of all “objectionable” cartoons from

school textbooks.