PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi will have something to boast while delivering his Independence Day speech, the first of his second term. His government has achieved record legislative productivity by passing contentious bills like the one banning triple talaq, and the amendments to the Right to Information Act, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Aadhaar Act, taking advantage of the disunity among opposition parties. The government managed to clear 16 bills in 32 days. Nearly two dozen more bills could be passed during the ongoing session of Parliament, which has been extended till August 7.
The political message from the legislative overdrive seems to be the unparalleled power wielded by the Modi government. Its final hurdle was the Rajya Sabha, where the united opposition had earlier stalled controversial bills. With its latest legislative coup, the government has found a way to overcome its handicap in the upper house, although it has only 107 members in the Rajya Sabha, 14 short of majority. The victory, however, has come at a cost. All the controversial bills were passed by sidestepping the scrutiny of parliamentary standing committees.
In the past, first sessions of Parliament tended to be shorter, and standing committees would be formed during the budget session. But this time, the government straightaway went into the budget-cum-monsoon session. “This is unprecedented. There never used to be such a long session immediately after the elections,” said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
Standing committees have not been set up even after a month of Parliament being in session. Tharoor said the speaker should have constituted the committees by now. “The government has an ambitious agenda, a lot of bills have come, but none of them has been subjected to legislative scrutiny in these committees. That is not good for the health of our Parliament and democracy,” he said. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said he would constitute new standing committees after the ongoing session.
Members from 17 opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha wrote to chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu that the bills were rushed through. “Public consultation is a long-established practice where parliamentary committees scrutinise bills, deliberate, engage and work towards improving the content and quality of the legislation,” wrote the MPs. Often called mini-parliaments, the committees are constituted to ensure the accountability of the executive to the legislature. First set up in 1993, they facilitate detailed discussions away from public glare, allowing MPs to air their views unhindered by party affiliations.
The National Medical Commission Bill cleared by the Lok Sabha on July 29, for instance, was sent to the standing committee on health last year. The committee heard Union health ministry officials, representatives of all states, bodies like the Indian Medical Association and the Medical Council of India, doctors’ unions, medical colleges, representatives of alternative medicines and scores of experts to study the bill in detail. It made 56 recommendations of which the government included 49 in the 2019 bill. Similarly, the Labour Reform Bill incorporated 17 of 24 recommendations made by the standing committee.
The same scrutiny was not extended to the triple talaq bill and the bills to amend the RTI Act and the UAPA, inviting vocal protests from the opposition. BJP general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupendra Yadav countered the opposition charges saying that from 2009 to 2014, the Manmohan Singh government had sent only five bills to the committees, while Modi, during his first term, referred 17 bills. “The opposition should understand that while feedback is necessary, there should not be unnecessary obstacles. This is against healthy democracy,” said Yadav.
The opposition used to leverage its strength in the Rajya Sabha by stalling controversial bills or sending them to parliamentary panels. But with the Modi government enjoying near total dominance in the Lok Sabha, the opposition seems to have lost its will to fight. It could manage only 84 votes in the upper house to back a proposal to send the bill on triple talaq to the standing committee, while the government lined up 100 votes against the suggestion. Several MPs from opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party either walked out or were not present in the house during the voting. The government finally managed to get the bill passed with 99 votes in favour and 84 against it. Six MPs from the SP, four each from the Congress and the BSP and two each from the NCP, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Telugu Desam Party stayed away, handing the Modi government an easy victory.
“The floor management of the BJP-NDA in the Rajya Sabha is quite something. So much for the treasury side not having the numbers in the upper house....,” tweeted former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah following the government’s victory. But Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien suggested that something sinister was afoot. “Not floor management. It’s the invisible and most dependable allies of the BJP: CBI and ED,” wrote O’Brien, in his reply to Omar.
The new speaker has played a key role in enhancing the government’s legislative agenda. A strict disciplinarian, Birla has ensured that the Lok Sabha has not lost a single day because of adjournments. Even when sitting MP Ram Chandra Paswan expired, Birla adjourned the house for only half a day. Opposition MPs, too, seem happy with Birla as he gives them reasonable time to speak. This has brought down the number and frequency of protests, allowing the speaker to run the house in a more productive manner.
Faced with the BJP’s onslaught, the opposition unity in the Rajya Sabha is under grave threat. The ruling party recently got two MPs—former prime minister Chandra Shekhar’s son, Neeraj Shekhar, who was with the SP, and Sanjay Singh of the Congress—to resign and switch sides. “That is the reason I have been asking for the appointment of a new Congress president at the earliest,” said Tharoor. “This will stem the decline in the organisation and strengthen the opposition.”