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For a smooth run of Monsoon session

THE Monsoon session of Parliament starting this week will also be beginning of the home stretch for the Narendra Modi government.

For a smooth run of Monsoon session

The Modi government stares at a disadvantage this session.



KV Prasad

THE Monsoon session of Parliament starting this week will also be beginning of the home stretch for the Narendra Modi government. This session assumes significance for it is the penultimate legislative session for the government to push forward its bills, with the Winter session being the last since the next Budget session will be a pro forma to present a Vote-on-Account before the Lok Sabha elections due next April-May.

As is wont, the government will come up with the bills it wants Parliament to consider and pass in the session starting on July 18, ahead of August 10, the target date for adjournment. This session will afford the Modi government the opportunity to complete whatever legislation it requires to fulfill its promise of ''Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas''. The government's parliamentary managers will have the task cut out to ensure that the Houses function, while accommodating competing claims from the Opposition on issues it wants to flag.   

There is a long list of bills of various categories -- passed in either House and pending in the other; introduced in one House and scrutinised by the parliamentary committees of jurisdiction; is the property of either House, with little or no movement; and new bills the government proposes to introduce now. What bill(s) go through the process to become a law will depend on the balance that the government and the Opposition are able to strike between political compulsions and policies of parties that have representatives in Parliament.

Going by recent trends, much time of the Houses was lost on account of issues that political parties — big or small — thought important enough to stall the proceedings. There are chances that a similar situation may figure in this session too. 

The Modi government goes into this session staring at a disadvantage. The mood in the Opposition is upbeat and the disparate parties forming the Opposition are working towards intensive floor coordination. There is a greater spring in the stride of Opposition leaders and it should translate into a more aggressive stance, leaving lesser room for dexterous negotiations that ruling coalition parliamentary managers engage in. 

On the other side, the BJP-led NDA will be without one of its most experienced parliamentarians — the Leader of the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, currently convalescing after a surgery. Then there is a test of strength: the election to the post of Deputy Chairman after PJ Kurein’s retirement. The NDA is struggling to ensure its candidate’s victory, even as the Opposition is determined to queer the pitch.

In such conditions, the leaders of the parties in the Opposition, too, will have to work on a strategy with imagination to ensure that the proceedings of the Houses are not disrupted. Leaders should devote energies towards making Parliament function without hindrance. For, it is only when there is debate and discussion that the parties across the aisle can hope to put the government on the mat.

Opposition parties, separately and collectively, are drawing up lists of issues to be raised for discussion. In the past, a cause of disagreement that led to the standoff between the government and Opposition parties was on the admissibility of a motion for discussion under rules that may not bring comfort to the ruling dispensation.

Indications are that contentious issues continue to agitate different political parties and these may find resonance once the Houses commence sitting. Rumblings in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) may result in its MPs registering their protest through a no-confidence motion that it tried to move in the last session without success. The TDP snapped its ties with the BJP over the grant of a special category status to the state after its bifurcation, but it would be ill advised to resort to it all over again.

Even after TDP’s exit, the NDA enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha, the only House that has the power to vote for or against the continuation of the government. During the Budget session, the motion never came up for scrutiny since the House was not in order for the Speaker to take a head count of the 50 MPs who supported it.

The Opposition should work in tandem if it wants to make the session meaningful. Now that there is greater unity and greater focus among the various parties opposed to the BJP and they have acquired a new momentum after the turn of events in Karnataka, this task should be easier. 

In either House, the challenge would be to ensure that the proceedings continue and the available tools employed to force the pace. The easiest opportunity is to allow the question hour to proceed without hindrance. For, it is during the 60 minutes each day that members — freshman or veteran — have equal opportunity to hold the government accountable. There is a schedule of which ministry will have to take questions and based on submitted answers, the members can prise open many facets.

Even political parties or leaders who have been commenting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to hold a media interaction during the last four years were unable to raise a single or searching question regarding the government or in regard to ministries directly under the PMO that would make the Head of the Government intervene or clarify.

The Opposition should get its act together and work with greater creativity and not allow the government to get away without the greatest scrutiny on each and every claim it has made or decision it has taken simply because there is no order in the House. Notwithstanding the forceful denials by the BJP leadership, who knows this Monsoon session could also be the last, if speculation of early polls later this year turns into a reality! 

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