Shortest Lok Sabha Since 1952
Context:
- As it begins its final year, the 17th Lok Sabha has completed 230 sitting days of activity. Of all Lok Sabhas that completed a full five-year term, the 16th has the fewest sitting days (331) overall.
- Given that it still has one year to go and that there are 58 average sitting days every year, the 17th Lok Sabha won’t likely convene for longer than 331 days. As a result, the Lok Sabha may hold its briefest regular session since 1952. There was not much legislative activity or budget discussion during the most recent session (Budget session 2023), which was disrupted by frequent disturbances.
Concerns about how the parliament functions:
- Reduced hours of operation for the Parliament: The Parliament’s hours of operation are constantly getting shorter.
- Frequently Abandoned Parliamentary Sessions Parliamentary sessions have been often suspended in recent years. This hampers the work of Parliament.
- Use the cashier’s check method: Several big pieces of legislation have been approved as money bills even if they don’t fulfill this criterion.
- controversial topics are avoided discussion: When a contentious matter comes up, the administration is reluctant to discuss it, which leads Opposition MPs to flout parliamentary procedures and conduct norms.
- Less attention paid to bills There was little to no review when the laws were passed because most of them were passed during the same session that they were introduced.
- For instance, in the most recent monsoon session, 18 of the 20 legislation were passed without any discussion in the Lok sabha due to a lack of legislative debate.
- A representative democracy is demonstrated through parliamentary discussion, which enables questions about governance from the representation of the people to be made directly to the government.
The 17th Lok Sabha’s flaws were as follows:
- The Lok Sabha convened for 33% of the time permitted (46 hours), but the Rajya Sabha only used 24% of that period (32 hours).
- Only 131 of the 150 measures that were introduced in this Lok Sabha have been passed, with appropriation and financial bills being the exceptions.
- The most recent budget session was the sixth-shortest since 1952. 18 hours were spent debating financial issues in the Lok Sabha, 16 of which were spent talking about the budget in general.
- The Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address was the sole item discussed during the most recent session.
- The 17th Lok Sabha has only had 11 short presentations and one 30-minute discussion so far. None of these were held during the most recent session.
- 19% of the allotted time for the Lok Sabha and 9% of the scheduled time for the Rajya Sabha were spent with Question Time in operation. Only 7% of the starred questions in each House received an answer.
- There were no private member legislation introduced or taken up during this session. Each House debated a single Private Member Resolution.
Suggestions:
- Expanding the number of working days that Parliament is in session Our legislature should convene continuously, just like in the vast majority of developed democracies.
- Its status as the forum for discussion of significant national issues needs to be improved so that there is no longer a realistic option for disrupting or enabling them to be disrupted.
- imposing rules of conduct on MPs and MLAs: The code of conduct for MPs and MLAs must be carefully adhered to in order to avoid disruption of proceedings.
- The Anti-Defection Act should be amended to restrict its use to circumstances where the government’s continued existence is in jeopardy.
- Give private member bills more space and respect so that the populace can contribute new ideas.
- Television should broadcast parliamentary committee sessions since they typically involve bipartisanship and meaningful discussion. However, the general public is largely ignorant of this important aspect of parliamentary procedure.
- “Public Interest Legislation” must be enabled: Create a structure that will enable MPs to hear the perspectives of individuals who may be impacted and implement wise policy responses.
- Bring Transparency to the Conflict of Interests: Before legislation is put into effect, a range of publics and groups find ways to get their concerns across to key political decision-makers.
- A legislative disruption index should be created in order to monitor disruptions in legislatures and control indiscipline.
Conclusion:
- India’s parliamentary democracy can only advance if the framework for deliberative democracy functions well.
