Let’s hope for some debate and discussion

The winter session of Parliament gets underway on December 7 and will last till December 29. The government has indicated its plans to introduce a clutch of Bills while the Opposition is drawing up its priorities and issues to take up during the 17 sittings.

Of the Bills likely to come up in the session, those expected to face the most resistance include the ones to amend the existing law for multi-state cooperative societies and biodiversity. Voices in the Opposition have been critical of the move to legislate on issues that affect the states and tend to view the proposed reforms in multi-state cooperatives in this light. On biodiversity, despite the Bill having undergone scrutiny by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, dissensions remain and the Congress has announced its intention to oppose the Bill in its current form. Then, the move to make mediation mandatory, instead of citizens knocking on the doors of the courts, could face opposition and if the government brings up the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, that, too, would generate a lot of heat.

Ahead of the session, there are a few questions in the minds of citizens. Will the session run smoothly? Would there be fewer disruptions this time? Will there be effective and interesting discussions and debates on proposed legislations, as is required of Parliament, or will the government ram through legislations with little debate in the name of productivity? How effective will the performance of the Opposition be? Well, we will have to wait and see. All that can be said is that Parliament is a place where the process of law-making goes through both politics and policy, or at least it should. Debates on contemporary issues generate opinions and, at times, assist policymakers to finetune approaches and re-orient directions.

Quite like the monsoon session, the upcoming session holds an important place in the parliamentary calendar since the government of the day has the opportunity to push and clear its legislative business since the next session, the budget session, will be dedicated to a large extent to the business of the government’s finances.

The winter session is coming up at a time when two important changes have occurred. This will be the first session for Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar who, as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, will preside over the proceedings of the Council of States. The other is the election of Mallikarjun Kharge as the president of the Indian National Congress. Kharge has been Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and it remains to be seen if he will continue in that capacity.

In the run-up to the session, Dhankar remained engaged with different groups in Parliament in a separate, stand-alone initiative, different from the customary meetings the Presiding Officers of both the Houses and parliamentary managers of the government have with the leaders of various political parties in the Houses just before commencement of every session.

The Chairman’s meetings would have provided the new Rajya Sabha leadership a broad framework of the approach and concerns of members on either side of the aisle.

Ahead of the session, the Congress party identified three broad issues which were articulated by the party and will be fine-tuned in consultation with other parties in the Opposition.

For Congress, continuation of Kharge as the pointsman to coordinate a collective Opposition strategy in Parliament would be useful. The party’s bench strength in either House will be reduced this time since many key members, including Rahul Gandhi, are busy with the ambitious Bharat Jodo Yatra, currently in Rajasthan.

Over the last few sessions, the government has been annoyed that much of the time is lost in disruptions and stalling, which has cast a shadow on its thrust on productivity in Parliament. On the other hand, most parties in the Opposition have emphasised that the government does not accommodate their issues and concerns, particularly in the form and fashion that they propose to take them up for discussion and debate.

This has been a classic tug-of-war for the past few decades between successive governments and the Opposition of the time. Such stand-offs have resulted in stalemates and eventually continued disruptions have had to be sorted out with both sides arriving at a meeting point. The guiding principle has remained that while the Opposition can have its say, the government will have its way. A spirit of accommodation always carried the day.

A few days ago, speaking on behalf of the Congress, its Chief of Communications Jairam Ramesh charged that the government was not keen on discussing issues, including the border situation with China. Another party MP Manish Tewari wrote a piece on how even Question Hour yields little, while Trinamool Congress member Derek O’Brien in an article expressed anguish over the way Parliament has been functioning.

Now, these voices will remain and grow shriller as a few other political parties are also intent on joining the ranks of the Opposition. Of these, the approach of the Janata Dal-United will be interesting to watch. The party, led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, parted company with the BJP but JD-U nominee Harivansh continues as the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Swelling the Opposition ranks will be the Telangana Rashtra Samiti of K Chandrasekhara Rao who, on his part, is seeking to carve out a larger role for the party and for himself on the national level. The TRS recently rechristened itself as Bharat Rashtra Samiti and hopes its ‘car’ symbol will power it to office in the South Block.

With about 18 months to go for Lok Sabha elections, political parties with representation in Parliament would start posturing and attempt to corner the government on issues that they think will find traction.

Incidentally, the current session will be held in the existing building as the new Parliament House under construction is not yet ready.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in New Delhi)