Winter session adjourned sine die

The Winter Session of Parliament was adjourned sine die on Wednesday after the passage of the Lokpal Bill as an embattled UPA tried to maximise political gains by claiming credit for clearing the hurdles in establishing an anti-corruption ombudsman.

The government’s floor managers were finding it difficult to rein in an aggressive Opposition and its outside supporters who had been disrupting the proceedings ever since the Winter Session was convened on December 5.

Adding to the woes was a group of Congressmen from Seemandhra, who had moved a no-confidence mo­tion against the Union Council of Ministers over its decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress rout in the Assembly elections and the emergence of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi made the government do a serious re-think on the Lokpal Bill which was lying in cold storage for almost a year.

By moving the Lokpal Bill, which was supported by all parties in Parliament barring the Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena and Biju Janata Dal, and getting social activist Anna Hazare on board, the Congress has somewhat succeeded in conveying that it was serious in tackling corruption. It has also managed to take the anti-corr­uption issue away from Kejriwal, who built his political outfit on the anti-corruption movement.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s strong pitch for putting in place an anti-corruption framework by getting six additional legislation passed in Parliament has now set the government thinking on convening the second part of the Winter Session some time next month.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said: “We have adjourned the session sine die, we have not prorogued the session and it can be brought at a short notice. After talking to all parties, we will take a decision on this.” Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj reiterated that the Opposition was all for allowing Parliament to function.