Both houses of Parliament were adjourned sine die on April 6, bringing an end to the Budget Session that registered very low productivity of 34 per cent in the Lower House and 24.4 per cent in the Upper House. As in the past, Parliament could function much less than the planned duration with daily protests and frequent adjournments disrupting the second half of the Budget Session, data showed. According to it, the Lok Sabha functioned for over 45 hours against a scheduled duration of 133.6 hours while the Rajya Sabha worked for over 31 hours out of 130 hours. As the Lok Sabha has been adjourned sine-die over frequent disruptions, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge however put the blame on the Narendra Modi government for getting the Budget Session washed out.
Both Houses witnessed repeated adjournments of the Question Hour throughout the Session. The Lok Sabha could take questions for 4.32 hours while the figure for Rajya Sabha was worse at 1.85 hours for the entire Budget Session. In his concluding remarks, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said the House held discussions on the General Budget for 14.45 hours, and 145 MPs participated in it. Discussions on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address were held for 13 hours and 44 minutes with the participation of 143 MPs. In the Lok Sabha, eight government bills were introduced and six were passed, while 29 questions were answered orally, Birla said.
The Lok Sabha proceedings have been disrupted since the Budget session began on March 13 due to protests by Opposition and treasury benches. While the Opposition demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issue, the BJP is continuing its demand for an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his ‘democracy under attack’ remarks made in London. After the Union Budget was presented on February 1, Lok Sabha devoted a total of 14 hours and 45 minutes to discussing it. In Rajya Sabha, the general discussion on the Union Budget was cut short, lasting only two hours and 39 minutes over two days on February 9 and 10, despite being scheduled to take place from February 8 to February 10.
Similarly, the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, which was slated to run for four days from February 6 to February 9 in the Upper House of Parliament, only took place on February 7, 8, and 9. Overall, the Budget Session of Parliament was a tumultuous one, marked by disruptions and protests by both the opposition and the treasury benches. Though the first part of the Parliament session was productive, the second part with 15 sittings just fulfilled the constitutional obligation of passing the budget. The washout therefore is a loss to the democratic system of the country. It also raises questions if issues of public importance should be discussed in the street just because the ruling and opposition benches are playing sheer politics.
