#MonsoonSession starts
MPs are taking oath in both Houses.
Many MPs in attendance on first day. #SansadWatch
After obituaries in #LokSabha, the Speaker announced that with some new MPs taking oath, LS is now at its full membership with no seat vacant!
As some MPs raise that they have moved notices, Speaker quickly mentions that today is President's election & adjourns House till 2pm!
After some newly elected & nominated MPs take oath in #RajyaSabha (some like PT Usha, Ilaiyaraaja were not present), Chairperson reads obituaries.
Then Chairperson mentions earthquake in Afghanistan, relief sent by India, condemns terrorist attacks in Nigeria, Afghanistan.
Chairperson then announces that Piyush Goyal has been appointed Leader of House by PM.
Then Chair mentions that this is the last & 14th session he is presiding over. Gives a stat that 57% of sittings during last 13 sessions were disrupted partially or fully! #SansadWatch
Chairperson continues reading his statement.
- 75th Year of Independence, next 25 years will be Amrit Kaal
- India to become most populous
- MPs need to rise to challenge
- Gives some stat on #Parliament Committees which functioned well
Continues....
Protests start. #SansadWatch
Some MPs are protesting, raising slogans in well
'loktantra mein taana shahi nahin chalegi'
'aata, chawal, doodh, dahi ki mehengai, nahin chalegi'
'#GST waapis lo'
Due to protests & presidential election, Chair adjourns the House for the day! #SansadWatch
#LokSabha resumes
Amid protests, papers are tabled
Amid protests, extension of time given to Joint Parliament Committee on Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill to present its report.
Amid protests again, a Bill is being introduced.
Some placards can be seen! #SansadWatch
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called to speak on introduction of Family Court (Amendment) Bill
He opposes it
But says that since morning opposition is demanding discussion on #pricerise
Presiding officer cuts him off
And like that, 1st Bill of #MonsoonSession introduced amid protests!
1. During his tenure, some people breached #Parliament security & entered #LokSabha raising slogans. When Opposition MPs demanded debate on it, he didn't permit, instead 99 Opposition MPs got suspended for protesting against it!
2. Speaker is Chairman of the Rules Committee of #LokSabha. Between 2019-22, Committee held '0' meetings. Between 2022-24, Committee held '1' meeting.
Why is this important?
Remember when Indian #Parliament remained shut during #Covid even as many #Parliaments world over adapted?
When pandemic struck in 2020, many #Parliaments across the world held hybrid / virtual sessions & committee meetings, remote voting on bills etc.
Despite demand from Opposition MPs for same in LS, Speaker didn't permit.
We wrote about this in detail here- epw.in/journal/2020/2…
No, this is not a satirical post. This is as real as it can get!
1. The current term of #LokSabha hasn't had a Deputy Speaker yet. This is unprecedented. It violates Article 93 of the #ConstitutionOfIndia & Govt is about to get away with it without any consequences.
2. The current 17th Lok Sabha likely to be the full term LS with least number of #Parliament sittings, only 278 (approx, including the scheduled dates of upcoming last session). This is an average of only 56 days in a year. In 2020, #COVID19 became an excuse to bring down number of Parliament sittings to a historic low of only 33 days in a year. We plan to export #Aadhaar and #UPI to the world, but we couldn't convene virtual Parliament sessions, which many democracies did.
3. With less number of Parliament sittings, Govt relied more on Ordinances - 76 Ordinances between 2014-2021. · The three controversial #farmlaws were first brought as Ordinances as people were busy surviving the first wave of Covid in 2020.
Contd.. in #Thread
4. How do less number of #Parliament sittings helps Govt:
- Govt publishes a long list of Bills to be cleared
- Opposition demands debate on various issues like #Pegasus, #FarmersProtest, #AdaniScam, #ManipurCrisis, #ParliamentSecurityBreach etc.
- Govt says No, debate not needed
- Opposition protests, there are disruptions
- Govt says - many Bills pending, don't care that Opposition is protesting, or suspended or they walk out, Bills will be pushed
Some Examples:
- Winter Session 2023 - after unprecedented suspension of 146 MPs from Opposition, 14 Bills cleared by either or both Houses within just 3 days with minimal to no Opposition participation
- Monsoon Session 2023 - in just one week Lok Sabha passed 7 Bills with an average time of 21 mins each only. The controversial #ForestConservation Amendment Bill passed in LS within 33 mins, only 4 MPs spoke. The Digital Personal #DataProtection Bill debated in LS for only 40 mins, only 8 MPs spoke. In RS the DPDP Bill was debated for only 50 mins, during which no Opposition MP participated.
- Monsoon Session 2021 - Opposition demanding debate on #Pegasus, LS cleared 18 Bills amid protests, spending an average of only 15 mins on each. Some Bills cleared within 5-6 mins.
- Monsoon Session 2020 - Opposition boycotted over Farm Bills fiasco, RS cleared 15 Bills in just 2 days, spending little less than 8 hours in total.
5. The Govt doesn't believe in wasting time by sending Bills to #Parliament Committees for scrutiny. As per analysis done by PRS -
2009-14 - 71% of bills referred to Standing Committees
Since 2019 - only 16% bills referred to Standing Committees
Also, to control the process, Govt prefers to send controversial Bills to Joint Parliament Committees (on which Govt decides who to nominate), as opposed to Standing Committees. For instance, following Bills were sent to JPC instead of existing Standing Committees (which in most cases were chaired by Opposition MPs):
o Land Acquisition Amendment Bill
o Citizenship Amendment Bill
o Personal Data Protection Bill
o Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill
o Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill
A #thread on Govt denying or ignoring questions on #dataleaks raised in #RajyaSabha today.
1. Q asking if data from UIDAI servers was leaked on dark web recently?
Govt's response - No breach of Aadhaar card holders’ data has occurred from the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) maintained by the Unique Identification Authority of India.
Earlier this year, there were reports of #Aadhaar data of 81.5 crore Indians leaking on dark web -
In a rare instance, #LokSabha takes up for discussion a report of the Committee of Ethics on a complaint against MP Mahua Moitra.
As Minister moves the motion for the same, some MPs say that they haven't even a received a copy of the report yet (it was tabled only this morning)!
After Speaker speaks for a few minutes on the kind of conduct expected of MPs etc., he says that he will permit 30 minute debate. Some MPs ask for more time.
Adhir ranjan Choudhary argues that MPs being given only 2 hours to go through 604 page report, how humanly possible?
Choudhary says that if allegation made against someone, natural justice demands they be given a chance to speak, no one can be punished in such a manner. Let not new #Parliament start a 'kalankit' (shameless) practice. Some MPs object to that.
He asks for 3-4 days to read report.
Discussion on #pricerise starts in #LokSabha with Manish Tewari, INC speaking:
- In last 8 yrs, 5 economic values (savings, investment, production, consumption, employment) have degraded
- 23 crore have slid back into poverty
- 77% of country's wealth concentrated in 1% people
Tewari on #PriceRise:
- 100-166 billionaires in country, but poor people suffering
- started due to BJP's #demonetization
- then #GST imposition made MSMEs suffer, still not recovered
- 10.6 lakh crore money outstanding in this sector
- 8& #unemployment in 2022 #MonsoonSession
Tewari on #PriceRise:
- #MNREGA was called 'gaddha khodne wali scheme' by NDA, now keeping families alive
- Instead of filling money in common peoples pockets, in 2014-2022 4.32 lakh crore concession given to businesses
- Why imposing #GST on cremation sites? How is this justice?
In #RajyaSabha, Q hour is proceeding amid protests.
Leader of House, Piyush Goyal, speaks to protesting MPs, says that discussion on #pricerise will happen in RS tomorrow.
Also says that law enforcement agencies take their own course, Govt doesn't interfere! #SanjayRaut
Leader of Opp in #RajyaSabha, Mallikarjun Kharge says:
- price rise discussion still not listed
- have submitted notices on other issues also on what's happening in #Maharashtra, #Jharkhand, #Gujarat, those notices not even acknowledged.
Q Hour again proceeds amid protests!