Rushing bills and rejecting discussions on issues of national importance have become the norm.

For one full month — the entire Monsoon Session — Parliament was virtually washed out. Who created the logjam in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha? What left Opposition MPs with no option but to raise slogans and repeatedly enter the well? Why were the government’s floor managers uninterested even in holding back-channel talks with representatives from major parties in the Opposition? It was a combination of arrogance and defensiveness. This is a government so unsure even of its hubris that it doesn’t feel confident enough to stand up for its actions. Instead, it resorts to a serial sabotage of Parliament.

Here are the facts of how it was done.

i. Reject every single notice given by the Opposition to discuss any issue of national importance (including the Special Intensive Revision).

ii. Come up with two “reasons” to avoid having a meaningful discussion on the floor of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Excuse number one: The matter is sub judice. Excuse number two: The Election Commission cannot be discussed on the floor of Parliament.

iii. Even when the Opposition made a sincere effort to make Parliament function, the government dug in its heels. Let me tell you, the Opposition was even open to the idea of taking up a discussion on this subject: “Urgent Need to Strengthen the Electoral Process in the Mother of Democracies”. Dwell on the wording of this notice. No mention ofthe SIR. No mention of the EC. And yet the Union government refused to have a discussion.

iv. Rushing bills. In the Lok Sabha, six bills (IIM Bill, Manipur GST Bill, Online Gaming Bill, Manipur Appropriation Bill, Income Tax Bill, and Taxation Laws Bill) were passed without discussion; only the minister spoke. On the last day of the session, when the Online Gaming Bill was being discussed in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, interrupted a Member and said: “No one can speak, or hear anything in the disturbance, so we request you to pass the bill.” I am not making this up!

v. The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) decides the time allocated to each item of business in Parliament. All scheduling and planning is driven by this committee. Your columnist is a member of the BAC. This Monsoon Session, the opening meeting of the BAC was rescheduled five times in the first two days! A dubious record. Jagdeep Dhankhar, then the Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, chaired the first meeting of the BAC on July 21 at 12:30 PM. In attendance were the Leader of the House, J P Nadda, and the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju. However, the two government representatives did not attend any subsequent meetings. By the end of the day on July 21, the Vice President had tendered his resignation. Inexplicable.

vi. According to parliamentary rules, a member may, at any time, raise a “point of order” to a decision taken by the Chairman. During this Monsoon Session, members of the Opposition raised multiple “points of order”. At least 17 such “points of order” were disallowed.

vii. At the fag end of the session, Home Minister Amit Shah introduced three crucial bills. He also moved motions in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into these bills. What is the track record of JPCs? Are they an effective and transparent mechanism? You decide.

Members of the JPC are nominated by parties based on their strength in the House. So the ruling party or coalition, with larger numbers, dominates. Also, the recommendations of the JPC are only advisory in nature and the government is not bound to act on them.

In 1987, a JPC was constituted to investigate the Bofors contract scam. Six major Opposition parties boycotted the JPC since the majority of the Committee’s members were from Congress. Two of the parties are still the BJP’s allies: The Telugu Desam party (TDP) and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). The Committee’s report, presented in 1988, was rejected by the Opposition (non-Congress) for being biased.

The JPC report on the “Irregularities in Securities and Banking Transactions”, presented in 1993, gave 273 recommendations. Only 87 were actually implemented. The JPC report on “Allocation and Pricing of Telecom Licences and Spectrum”, presented in 2013, gave 74 recommendations. How many were implemented? We do not know because the “action taken” report was not laid.

A motion for the appointment of a JPC to investigate the acquisition of AugustaWestland VVIP choppers was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2013. Opposing the motion, the then Leader of the Opposition, Arun Jaitley, had said the JPC would be an “exercise in futility” and was a “diversionary tactic” by the government.

Between 2014 and 2024, Parliament set up 11 JPCs. The motion for constituting a JPC was adopted on the last day of the session in seven cases. In contrast, between 2004 and 2014, three JPCs were set up. None were set on the last day.

Overheard at the Parliament cafeteria: JPC. Joint Parliamentary Committee or Just Political Camouflage.

This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, August 29, 2025]