The Monsoon Session of Parliament starting on July 18 is set to be historic in more ways than one. The regular session begins with Members of Parliament exercising their franchise to elect the President of India and on the penultimate Saturday of the four-week session, to vote for the new Vice President.
While these elections will mark a transition in the top two Constitutional posts of the country, a third and significant milestone in the 70-year journey of the Indian Parliament is set to occur – its targeted last session in the existing Parliament building, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker.
The presumption here is based on the announcement that the new Parliament House coming up adjacent to the current building is being made ready for use from the 2022 Winter Session.
The July 18-August 12 session should demonstrate whether the Opposition, whose ranks are depleted, can get its act together and raise issues of concern, some of which have been flagged.
The result of the first test of Opposition unity in the presidential elections is already clear. Droupadi Murmu, the official candidate of the BJP-led coalition government, is cruising ahead and is set to enter Rashtrapati Bhawan as the first tribal woman President of the Republic against her challenger from the Opposition camp, Yashwant Sinha.
Two prominent supporters of the joint Opposition candidate, the Shiv Sena and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, have switched sides. Ironically, while the Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackrey headed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government along with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, the JMM is running a government in the state with the Congress as an ally.
While there is a steady erosion in the Opposition ranks, it can draw solace with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) deciding to pitch its wagon to this camp. While supporting Yashwant Sinha, the TRS’ approach on other issues will be known in due course.
As for the vice-presidential election, the governing coalition at the Centre enjoys a clear majority in the electoral college comprising Members of Parliament. The result will not be affected irrespective of the Opposition choice to seek a contest or prefer to go for a consensus candidate.
Yet, early signs from the Opposition camp indicate that the mood ahead of the session is less accommodative and a slew of issues --- price rise, Agnipath recruitment scheme, ongoing crisis on the border with China, privatisation of banks and handling of the economy -- have been identified by the Congress to be raised in the session.
On the eve of the session, the Opposition found another issue, expansion in the list of ‘unparliamentary words’ to the lexicon that has some 1,100 pages in its seventh and last edition published four years ago.
Members belonging to the Opposition camp expressed their strong opinions against the move while Speaker Om Birla stated the process of adding words was nothing new and part of an established practice for over 60 years.
This move offered the Opposition an Opportunity to pillory the government even though the process is an age-old parliamentary practice of expunging words mentioned in the list from the official record.
This was preceded by another debate on the statue of the Ashoka Lions symbol placed atop the Parliament building under construction.
Issues of concern to the people are aplenty and vary from state to state and region to region, and it requires both dexterity and innovation on part of the peoples’ representatives, especially in the Opposition, to raise them in an effective manner.
Attempts would be made to bring about a greater cohesion among the parties in the Opposition, each of them having a set of priorities on which their representatives would seek to turn the spotlight on. Can the Opposition collectively set aside its differences and join hands to put the government on the mat?
There are enough parliamentary devices under which members can draw attention of the government and force the administration to act.
The art of efficacious intervention requires sound understanding of the rules and procedures and employ them instead of resorting to oft-used tactics of stalling the proceedings. A meaningful debate and healthy discussion can yield more than disruption. Opposition should make use of the opportunity amid the adage that while the Opposition can have its say, government will have its way. Both sides require space for parliamentary democracy to thrive.
(The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist and political commentator)