Curtains on Winter Session of Parliament

Curtains came down on Friday on the Winter Session of Parliament that saw enacting laws ranging from granting Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to scrapping the elite SPG security cover to the Gandhi family.

The three-week session of Parliament also granted legislative sanction to easing of taxation laws for the domestic manufacturing sector as also the extension of reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Enthused by the recent electoral successes in Maharashtra and Haryana, a charged up opposition also sought to corner the Modi government on issues such as agrarian distress, a crime against women, and the state of the economy, but with little success.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi expressed satisfaction that both the Houses witnessed 100% productivity with the Rajya Sabha passing 15 bills while the Lok Sabha putting its seal of approval on 14 draft legislations.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu complimented members for making the 250th session of the Council of States a success with 100% productivity and also marking a record of sorts by ensuring oral replies to an average 10 questions during every sitting of the House.

Naidu informed the House that as against the total scheduled available time of 108 hours 33 minutes during the winter session with 20 sittings, the House functioned for 107 hours 11 minutes resulting in productivity of over 99%.

The opposition too kept the government on its toes on a range of issues but drew the ire of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for charging at the Chair on at least one occasion.

Joshi made it a point to flag the behaviour of the opposition members, particularly those belonging to the Congress, and accused them of showing disrespect to the chair.