Disruptions in Parliament

In News

• Both Houses of Parliament adjourned sine die recently with presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha expressing concern over disruptions.

Performance of the Houses

• The Rajya Sabha utilised only 47.9% of its allotted time during the 18 sittings.  Of the scheduled sitting time of 95 hours 6 minutes, it transacted only for 45 hours of business.
• The Lok Sabha saw 83 hours and 20 minutes of business being conducted with 18 hours and 48 minutes of disruption.
• The House performed “much below its potential”, a situation that owed much to the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs at the beginning of the session for its entirety that pretty much drew the battle lines in Parliament deeper than before.
• Even Chief Justice N.V. Ramana had complained about a lack of debate in Parliament.
• PRS Legislative Research data: 3rd least productive Lok Sabha session of the last two decades.

Reasons for Disruptions

• Dissatisfaction in MPs:  Inadequate time for airing their grievances. 
• Political disagreements: On discussing issues like Pegasus phone hacking & farm laws. 
• Violation of norms: Political parties not adhering to parliamentary norms.
• Other reasons: Unresponsive attitude of the government, like handling of Covid-19 situation, deaths due to the pandemic etc.
  • Absence of rigid & prompt statutory provisions
  • Less number of working days
• Lack of Legislative Scrutiny: Govt. introduced 11 bills in the session & passed them w/o scrutiny by standing committees.

Impacts of Parliamentary Disruptions

• Hinder representative democracy
• Erosion of faith about Parliament
• Wastage of taxpayers money
• Laws are passed more in form than in substance
• Inability of the Opposition to hold the government accountable.

Measures to be Taken

• More teeth to MPs: Parliament can give more chances to question the government. 
• Ethics committees: Need to be strengthened
• Productive Parliamentary Index: To showcase the output and output of every session
• Disincentivise MPs: Can be a good deterrent; strict adherence to Code of Conduct
• Increase in sitting days: A calendar of sittings should be announced
• Sense of responsibility by both sides: The smooth conduct of the House was the responsibility of all stakeholders and must run with the collective will and consensus of all. 

Source: TH