Agitate And Legislate

Seldom has there been a more unique blend of dissent and assent in Parliament than was witnessed in the just concluded Budget session. The mostly acrimonious two-phased session set new records of sorts in both disruption of proceedings and disposal of official business. While nearly one-fourth of the total time of the Lok Sabha was wasted in acrimony over various trivial as well as important issues, no fewer than 26 bills, including two Constitution amendment Bills, the Finance Bill and the path-breaking Information Technology Bill, were passed by the House. The proceedings of the House tended to follow a pattern -- angry protests in the mornings, leading often to the adjournment of the House, and smooth business in the afternoon, resulting in the passage of even some of the controversial bills with relative ease. Interestingly, differences over many issues between the BJP and the main opposition Congress party, as also among the constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), did not come in the way of approval of the legislation, despite the opponents being often in a position to stall them on the basis of their numerical strength.

However, some of the more contentious measures, such as the Women's Reservation Bill and the Bills for carving out three new states of Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh from UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, respectively, could not even be introduced amidst strong protests from some quarters. The ruckus aimed at blocking these Bills carried off in its wake even the Bill on the right to information, which too was slated for introduction towards the fag end of the session.

Interestingly, of the three budgets presented by BJP-led governments in their present and earlier incarnations, this year's is the only one to have been passed after proper consideration in both the Houses as well as by the parliamentary standing committees. The issue of a subsidy cut on foodgra-ins, fertilisers and petroleum products virtually hijacked all the attention, making the sailing for the Finance Bill unusually smo-oth. The lack of interest in the budget can be gauged also from the fact that participation of the members and the time devoted to the discussion on the railway budget far exceeded that on the general budget. The discussion on the functioning of the ministries, too, was a victim of the focus on the subsidies issue, which seems to have remained unresolved even at the end of the session.

The stop-go approach adopted by the opposition parties and some of the dissenting constituents of the ruling NDA on certain vital economic issues can be viewed as an indication of both political maturity (to allow Parliament to function) as well as the lack of sufficient strength to take a firm stand. In most cases, parties have tended to choose the middle path of playing to the galleries without stalling either the legislative business or the process of economic reform.