The Budget session of Parliament concluded a day ahead of schedule on Thursday, with ruckus in the Rajya Sabha as the opposition did not allow Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to complete his customary concluding remarks.
The session, which held 27 sittings over two months, saw enthusiastic debate on a range of issues, while opposition members said the Narendra Modi government had ended the proceedings ahead of schedule as it wanted to “run away” from the debate over high fuel . prices.
While proceedings in the Lok Sabha were overall smooth, there was an exchange of anger in the Rajya Sabha between Naidu and opposition members, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Derek O’Brien, who wanted a discussion on the repeated hike in fuel prices. In Rajya Sabha, Shiv Sena members Sanjay Raut and Priyanka Chaturvedi tried to raise the issue of an FIR lodged against BJP’s Kirit Somaiya for allegedly snatching donations collected to save INS Vikrant. Congress members backed the Shiv Sena, saying the issue of rising prices of essential commodities, including petrol, diesel and cooking gas, was not allowed to be raised in the entire session, but at least “this scam” should be discussed.
However, Naidu rejected the opposition’s plea and called for Zero Hour. As the opposition members climbed into the well, Naidu adjourned the proceedings sine die without the customary concluding remarks. Congress said, “Rajya Sabha adjourned two days ago… For its political convenience, Modi government ran away from discussion on price hike, broken promises to farmers and labor minister did not even respond to debate on labor and (un)employment Gave it,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.
Ramesh argued that since Parliament was adjourned at 11:00 am on Thursday, no business could be transacted and it ended two days of proceedings. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi hit back at Ramesh, claiming that he was telling “lies”. Joshi claimed that Congress leaders had suggested the Rajya Sabha Chairman to end the session early.
The budget session began on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint sitting of both the houses. After this the Union Budget was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1 February. The first half of the budget session ended on 11 February when Parliament went on recess to examine the budget papers.
The session resumed on March 14 and ended on Thursday, a day before the completion of the budget process and passage of key bills such as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (Amendment) Bill and the Criminal Procedure (Identity) Bill. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said, “The overall productivity of the eighth session of the 17th Lok Sabha was 129 per cent.”
Birla said the members also sat late by 40 hours to discuss issues of national importance. Naidu said the Rajya Sabha lost around nine-and-a-half hours due to disruptions and forced adjournments, but the additional sitting for nine hours and 16 minutes made up for the lost time.
“The productivity of the House during the budget session was 99.8 per cent. If the House had worked for only 10 more minutes, the productivity would have been 100 per cent,” Naidu said. The Lok Sabha passed 12 bills including the Finance Bill, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, the Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Distribution System (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill.
Rajya Sabha passed 11 Bills including six Appropriation Bills and Finance Bills which were returned. There was also a short-lived discussion in the Lok Sabha on climate change, the situation in Ukraine and the need to promote sports in India.
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