By IANS,
New Delhi : Parliament passed 17 bills into law during its month-long winter session that concluded Tuesday with the Rajya Sabha adjourning sine die, but the session will be more remembered for the disruptions, particularly in the Lok Sabha, on the Telangana issue.
The disruptions prompted an exasperated Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to adjourn the house sine die Friday, ahead of its scheduled Monday rising. The Rajya Sabha session was extended by a day following the death Monday of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member S. Acharya.
The winter session of parliament normally adjourns on the last Friday before Christmas. It stretched over this time to enable the government to make a statement on the Copenhagen climate change summit that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended Dec 18.
When Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh made the statement in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday, it triggered a lively debate, with Leader of Opposition in the house Arun Jaitley saying the Copenhagen Accord would barter away the country’s sovereignty and the government stoutly refuting the contention.
In fact, Tuesday was one of the rare days when Manmohan Singh, who is the Leader of the House, was seen in the chamber.
The 17 bills that both houses of parliament passed related to a variety of issues like workmen’s compensation, central universities, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, rubber, payment of gratuity, civil defence and salaries and allowances of ministers.
A total of 21 bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha, of which 19 were passed. Just one bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, which also passed 17 bills that had been cleared in the Lok Sabha. Two bills — one relating to foreign trade and the other a constitution amendment introduced way back in 1988 — were withdrawn from the upper house.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told reporters Tuesday that the Lok Sabha lost 31 hours and 48 minutes and the Rajya Sabha lost about 30 hours due to adjournments caused by “vigorous opposition to running of the house”.
“Some of this was recouped by sitting late and skipping lunch,” he said. The Lok Sabha was able to recover 10 hours and 49 minutes of lost time while the Rajya Sabha could recover 11 hours and 20 minutes.
The Lok Sabha, in fact, lost two full days of its planned 23 sittings while the Rajya Sabha convened for all its 23 sittings.
“It was a fruitful session though there were occasions when the sound of democracy prevailed over the sound of reason,” Bansal said, adding it was the government’s intention to take everyone along.
He replied in the affirmative when asked if the government planned to lengthen parliament’s sessions, which currently last less than 100 days in a year.
“We are also endeavouring to increase the sittings of parliament,” Bansal said.
It was not only the Telangana issue that incensed members on both sides of the divide in both houses. Rising prices of essential commodities and state politics over cane prices agitated members in both houses and prompted many an adjournment in the Lok Sabha.
Then, there was the heat generated by the “leak” of the Liberhan Commission report on the Dec 6, 1992, demolition of the Babri mosque, with Home Minister P. Chidambaram being shouted down for all of 45-minutes by BJP members as he replied to a two-day debate in the Lok Sabha.
The situation was just the reverse when the Rajya Sabha debated the issue with legal luminaries matching their wits on the two days. On the first day, it was Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley (BJP) versus Abhishek Manu Singhvi. On the second day, it was Chidambaram versus Jaitley.
On another occasion, it was Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal who piloted a bill in the Rajya Sabha on creating 16 new central universities using all the eruditeness he has acquired as an eminent but now non-practicing Supreme Court lawyer.
The budget session will begin in the second half of February with President Pratibha Patil’s address to a joint session of both houses of parliament.