Did elections derail govt's plan to usher in reforms via Parliament?

The election commission officials kicked-off their visit to five poll-bound states from Wednesday, the day when the Parliament’s winter session was adjourned sine die. The EC visit is usually a precursor to the announcement of the poll schedule, which experts believe may be out early January.

Meanwhile, as the session was in progress, farmer unions had intensified their stir against the farm laws. Most protesters sitting at the Delhi borders came from Punjab or western Uttar Pradesh, the two poll bound states.

And the bank unions were too up in arms against the proposed Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which sought to privatise two public sector banks. Fearing for their jobs, lakhs of government bank employees observed a two-day nationwide strike recently against the privatisation bid. 

So, did the government choose a populist path when it announced the scrapping of the pro-reform agriculture laws and didn’t table the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Experts believe so.

The government also took a U-turn on abolition of electricity subsidies. It has decided to withdraw the proposal from draft Electricity Bill, 2020, deviating from its plan to introduce Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in the electricity sector. The Electricity Amendment Bill was dropped at the behest of farmers as the government agreed to first discuss the bill with them before it is tabled.

Not just this, but also the bill to regulate cryptocurrencies was not taken up. A similar bill was earlier listed for the Budget session but could not be introduced. To be sure, there is still no clarity on whether the government wants to regulate the sector or ban it. Cryptocurrencies gained mainstream relevance in India in 2017 and four years later regulations are yet to come. Another year has gone by with the Indian crypto sector still living with uncertainty.

At the same time, The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which enables the linking of electoral roll data with Aadhaar, was pushed through the Parliament despite the bill not being listed in the initial business agenda. The actions raise questions on the government’s immediate priorities despite stated intent on economic reforms.

The privatisation of two public sector banks (PSBs) is unlikely to happen in the current year. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in this year’s Budget that the government will take up this exercise.

The 18-day winter session of Parliament was also one of the least productive.

Chakshu Roy, Head of Outreach at PRS Legislative, also gave us his views.

Now, the fate of these key pro-reform bills is hanging in the balance. With the Budget session just over a month away, we can once again expect these bills to grab the headlines. With reform bills piling up, it's high time the government turned decisive and stopped dragging its feet for yet another year.