Walkouts, jibes, disruptions: Parliament’s Winter Session starts with a storm

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi baiting his rivals into another political powwow and the Opposition adamant on its demand for an immediate discussion on electoral reforms, the winter session got off to a predictable stormy start on Monday (December 1).

The “trust deficit” between the Treasury and Opposition sides, which had also washed out Parliament’s monsoon session in August, was palpable through Monday’s acrimonious exchanges. Moments before the session was to commence, Modi, in his customary soliloquy to the media, made it amply clear that he had no willingness to engage on substantive issues that a united Opposition has identified to demand discussions from the Centre on.

PM’s ‘drama not delivery’ jibe

The Prime Minister may have hit the right notes by asserting that Parliament was a platform for debate and discussion but he betrayed that sentiment a moment later. Stinging rivals in the INDIA bloc with his “drama not delivery” jibe and with the ‘advise’ to “take tips from me” on being productive, laid the groundwork for the ruling coalition’s counter-charge against the Opposition for the remainder of the winter session, which will conclude on December 19 after just 15 sittings.

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With the demand for a discussion on electoral reforms, including the controversial (Special Intensive Revision – SIR) of electoral rolls, being the centrepiece of the Opposition’s offensive against the Centre, Modi made it a point to harp about the recent electoral outcome in Bihar, where SIR had been concluded ahead of the polls. Humility in victory has never been the leitmotif of Modi’s rhetoric; placing his scorching comments against the Opposition in context of the Parliament session would have only bolstered further the Opposition’s long-held view that the otherwise voluble Prime Minister has neither the inclination for debate nor the fear of Opposition’s united broadside; even if the two came at the cost of parliamentary proceedings.

The Opposition, on its part, has dug in its heels; for now putting the internecine feuds within the INDIA bloc on the backburner. INDIA bloc leaders had already made it clear to the Treasury side at Sunday’s all-party meeting and the meetings of the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha that they were prepared to disrupt proceedings if the Centre did not concede a discussion on electoral reforms on Monday itself.

In Lok Sabha, that threat was implemented moments after the House convened on Monday. The Lower House saw repeated adjournments during the Question Hour and Zero Hour before being finally adjourned for the day shortly after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced Bills for increasing cess on tobacco products and moved the Statutory Resolution on the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (second amendment) Bill, which was passed in din without any discussion.

INDIA bloc MPs stage walkout from RS

In the Rajya Sabha, while proceedings continued largely uninterrupted when members, including Modi, were felicitating Vice President CP Radhakrishnan, who was presiding over the House for the first time, the veneer of normalcy shattered the moment these felicitations concluded. With vociferous demands from Opposition MPs, Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) Derek O’Brien being the most vocal among them, for a committed timeline from the Centre for a discussion on electoral reforms meeting a non-committal response from Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, the INDIA bloc MPs staged a walkout. Rijiju’s assurance of reverting to the Opposition “soon” with a timeline for the discussion was met with a robust backlash from O’Brien, who pointedly told Radhakrishnan that there was a “trust deficit between the Treasury and Opposition benches” and asked the Parliamentary Affairs Minister “how can we trust you when you allowed the entire monsoon session to be washed out”.

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Earlier in the day, while Radhakrishnan was being felicitated, there had been only brief disruptions when Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge urged the new Rajya Sabha Chairman to function “fairly and impartially” and referred to the unceremonious exit of Jagdeep Dhankhar as Vice President, which triggered full-throated interruptions from the Treasury benches.

Opposition leaders, including Gaurav Gogoi, the Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha, TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Lok Sabha MP Rajeev Rai, DMK’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Tiruchi Siva and other INDIA bloc leaders confirmed to The Federal that their collective demand for discussion on electoral reforms will continue till the Centre accepts it.

The Opposition also wants an assurance from the Centre for adequate time being allotted in both Houses of Parliament for discussions on issues of national security emanating from the November 10 Red Fort car explosion and on rising air pollution. Among other issues that the INDIA bloc has sought discussions on are Centre-State relations and the obstructionist role of Governors in Opposition-ruled states, economic distress caused to people in different parts of the country due to natural calamities like floods, cyclones and landslides and unemployment.

Discussion on 150th year of ‘Vande Mataram’

Sources in the government, however, told The Federal that the Centre, rather than agreeing to the discussions sought by the Opposition, is keen on pushing ahead with a commemorative discussion on the 150th year of ‘Vande Mataram’ and could schedule it for later this week. A senior Union minister said the discussion on the national song, written by Bengal’s literary icon from India’s freedom movement, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, sometime around 1875, suits the political narrative of the BJP as it would see the Prime Minister and other senior leaders from the saffron party invoke the familiar tropes of nationalism and Hindu pride while trying to isolate both the Congress party and the Trinamool Congress, which is set to face the BJP in a pitched electoral battle in Bengal early next year.

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The Opposition’s united onslaught, another BJP leader told The Federal, doesn’t bother the ruling coalition as, in the aftermath of repeated electoral triumphs in Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi and most recently Bihar, the NDA is once again on the ascendant while the INDIA bloc’s unity “falls apart the moment Parliament sessions conclude”.

“It is a matter of just 20 days and then these parties will be at each other’s throats again. The Congress is already trying to pin the blame of the Bihar defeat on RJD. Next year, the Left and Congress will be fighting against Trinamool in Bengal and against each other in Kerala. There is nothing for us to be worried about. As the Prime Minister said, they (INDIA bloc parties) do this ‘dramabaazi’ during every Parliament session. We have to focus on our own agenda,” the second BJP leader quoted earlier said.