What an outrage! Why delay Winter Session for Gujarat polls?

Winter has come!

Smog has arrived like never before in Delhi!

But the Parliament session hasn’t!

SAD.

via GIPHY

In an ideal scenario, we would see MPs rushing to Delhi around this time of the year, getting ready for the Winter Session of Parliament to begin. The third week of November is the ideal time for the session to commence and it usually concludes before Christmas. Not this year though.

Government sources say the Winter Session of Parliament is likely to begin after the first week of December. There is still no official word regarding the exact dates. The non-official-source-based reason being given for this delay is the state assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. More Gujarat, less Himachal, I feel.

This is absolutely outrageous and that is what I’m going to do in this column: #outrage

The Parliament has members elected to represent us on a national level. There is a clear demarcation between state and Centre which is laid out in our Constitution. Each of their jobs are defined in separate lists: The Union List and the State List. There is another Concurrent List which lays out what tasks are to be done by both the Central and state government.

It makes zero sense to delay the Parliament session for a state assembly election. For instance, if a particular city in Gujarat doesn’t have good garbage collection and sanitation, a Member of Parliament going there and promising better facilities won’t make any difference. It is a job which has to be done by the municipal corporation of that city in tandem with the state government. If the Winter Session is being delayed for assembly elections, it is a clear signal being sent out that the fate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a particular state matters more than their current mandate in Parliament.

In the summer of 2016, when the West Bengal Assembly elections clashed with the Budget session, we saw that the Trinamool Congress MPs were largely absent while BJP and Congress MPs kept flitting in and out, taking turns to campaign and be in Parliament at the same time. The Parliament functioned because representatives from other states were present and exercising their right to raise issues and debate laws.

Not the same situation now, is it?

Here’s a fun fact: the Budget Session of 2017 was timed perfectly with the Uttar Pradesh Elections. The session was advanced and commenced on January 31 (as opposed to the usual February end dates). The first part of the session concluded on February 9. The first phase of UP elections began February 11 and the whole process concluded on March 8. Guess what happened on March 9? The second phase of Budget session resumed. Nicely done, don’t you think?

Obviously, Gujarat is different. It’s clearly special and matters a lot more, politically speaking. Here’s the thing though, in all this election madness, representatives from other states lose out the opportunity to participate in Parliament. That is simply uncalled for and unfair.

The Parliament functions for an average of 67 days a year. That is a woefully short amount of time given that between 1952 and 1972, the Lok Sabha worked for an average 120 days in a year. This year, if you count the Budget Session (29 sittings), Monsoon Session (19 sittings) and the upcoming Winter Session (probably 12 sittings), it comes to just 60 days. It’s an obvious sign of Parliament losing its relevance, over time, as a forum for raising public issues.

One dangerous and often heard refrain these days is, “Oh but what do these people do in Parliament any way except disrupt, make noise and talk nonsense? By having fewer sittings, taxpayer money is being saved.” This line of thinking is quite troubling and plain wrong. The Parliament is not a factory that produces soap where cost can be fixed based on the product it churns out. Laws are not to be treated as a product. Nor are discussions raised during sessions.

It’s really difficult to measure the productivity of Parliament based on the cost per minute or per hour or per day. Would you say that our MPs were more productive on the days that laws are passed as opposed to, say, Fridays when Private Members Bills are taken up and never ever passed? If yes, what would you say about the discussions that preceded the passing? The consultation, the deliberation, the negotiations surely led to that day when a law was finally passed?

If the productivity of Parliament is to be increased the most obvious solution is to increase the number of sittings. I mean… duh! But the opposite seems to be happening.

The upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, which now stands delayed for a godforsaken ridiculous reason, was to take up some important laws for consideration and passing. Like the Code on Wages, 2017 which gives Central Government the power to set minimum wages across the country, practically overriding what the state governments want. There is the

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 which amends the Right to Education Act. It removes the provision of not failing children till class 8. Then there is the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016 pending in Rajya Sabha which, for all intents & purposes, completely overhauls how we will drive our vehicles in the future.

There are discussions to be raised about the mess that Goods & Service Tax implementation has created. The whole of North India is covered in deadly smog with no solution in sight, the Parliament would be the best forum to discuss it and try to find a remedy. A proper discussion can also be initiated on the recent bank recapitalisation announcement made by the Finance Minister, questioning the government about how they are handling the NPA crisis. Fewer session days mean fewer questions will be put forward by MPs and fewer answers will be given by the government.

Now, this winter, the Parliament will have barely 12 days to do all of this. The Parliament’s primary job is to hold the elected Government accountable which it cannot do if it doesn’t have proper sittings.

via GIPHY

Politically speaking, it’s becoming obvious that the BJP is going to use its MPs and Ministers in Gujarat to campaign and, therefore, they might want to delay the session. It might mean there is a serious lack of talent in the state cadre. If ministers are being made to drop everything and campaign, it also points towards a code-red panic situation in their camp. But doing so at the cost of putting the rest of the country on hold while the BJP pushes ahead to achieve its electoral dream is a lot to ask.