Opinion Lost and not found
Government and opposition must introspect on the squandered opportunities in the 15th Lok Sabha.
3 min read
Government and opposition must introspect on the squandered opportunities in the 15th Lok Sabha.
As the second part of the winter session begins today, data suggests that this Lok Sabha will be the least productive ever, having passed only 165 bills so far. This has much to do with UPA 2’s lack of political management and statecraft, its inability to prioritise and push critical bills or rally support for its causes. When faced with a demand for a JPC on the spectrum controversy, for instance, the government stalled for months and then gave in, wasting important time.
Much of this stasis has also been because the principal opposition party, the BJP, patented new arts of obstructionism, walking out and boycotting the House rather than wresting answers in Parliament. Fierce political disagreement and electoral competition can, and must, coexist with legislative cooperation in certain matters of public interest, but over the last five years, neither government nor opposition showed the commitment to ensure that this happen.
Now, on the brink of the general election, the UPA’s authority looks most depleted while its legislative agenda is crowded with the undone work of sessions past. It has a wishlist of 39 bills. There is an assurance of cooperation on the vote on account (in lieu of the budget to be passed after the election), but the government can expect pitched battles on every other initiative.
The BJP is already aggressive, with leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, asking why they should cooperate with the UPA’s election platform. Allies of the UPA are already in seat-negotiation mode, and their aid is not guaranteed. The Telangana bill to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh is resisted by the UPA’s own MPs and chief minister. Once introduced, contentions around the bill are likely to swamp other matters. There are important economic bills at stake — a constitutional amendment to introduce the GST, the direct taxes code, the Sebi amendment.
The UPA has also made a last-ditch effort to bring up the women’s reservation bill, which drifts from session to session but has no real hope of being passed, given the entrenched opposition to it within parties.
Keen to redeem its reputation, the UPA will also push for the six anti-corruption bills talked up by Rahul Gandhi, including the public procurement bill, the whistleblower protection bill, the right to time-bound services bill and the judicial accountability bill. In the works for years, they have been pitched as an anti-corruption omnibus by the Congress vice president, with greater political firepower behind them now.
The opposition is likely not to cooperate with this agenda precisely for those reasons. And so, as the Parliament session resumes today, the odds are stacked against it achieving anything of substance.
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