Suit-Boot Vs Soojh-Boojh

The Budget session of Parliament is meandering towards its end.

It’s a session which will be remembered for the suit-boot vs soojh boojh jibes exchanged between the Government and the Opposition. Interestingly, the session started in dismal fashion particularly for the Congress, as Rahul Gandhi surprised everyone, possibly his mum included, by disappearing for a 56 day sabbatical, the details of which still remain a mystery.

But then, in the second half of the session, Rahul has motored back to life. Clearly working to a plan, both outside and within Parliament, Rahul has targeted the BJP, and Modi himself, of being a Party and a PM, that stood for the narrow interests of a few crony capitalists.

The jury is still out on what actual impact will Rahul Gandhi’s barbs will really have on the ground. But what’s quite clear is that these attacks did put the government on the defensive, especially over the Land Bill.

Complicating matters was criticism from ‘within’ in the form of Arun Shourie, who spoke to a TV channel, questioning the PM’s policies. Of course Shourie’s objectivity could also be questioned, having been passed over repeatedly for a role in Team Modi.

Productive, But for the Land Bill Impasse

So, how did Parliament perform in this session? According to PRS, the Parliament tracking website, productivity of both, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, in this session, has been pretty impressive. PRS puts the productivity of the Lok Sabha at 121 %, and of the Rajya Sabha, at a healthy 108%. Even Question Hour in both Houses, often a victim of parliamentary impasse, functioned for 87% of its overall scheduled time.

Credit to the Opposition again, that seems to have been a lot less disruptive than the BJP itself was as the Opposition, during UPA-2.

Amongst the major bills passed, the Insurance Bill and the Mines and Mineral Development Bills look good on the government’s CV. But it’s the Bills still languishing that will be of some concern to the government. In particular, the Land Bill. It’s the one bill which continues to be the albatross around Modi’s neck.

Such has been the resistance to this Bill, that when BJP’s very own MP from Balia spoke out against it recently, at the Parliamentary Party Meet, he was supported whole heartedly by large sections of the MPs. Bharat Singh may have been the rebel at that meet, but that bit of support he had from within Party ranks would not have gone unnoticed.

The tragic image of Gajendra Singh, hanging from a tree at Jantar Mantar, a stone’s throw away from Parliament, tilted the perception battle further against the Land Bill. Right through the session, the BJP did project a readiness to amend aspects of the Land Bill if could help build consensus, but the Opposition just did not oblige.

The Black Money Bill and GST Bill may still manage to be passed subject to some deft political moves, but its the Land Acquisition Bill that was the real test. Interestingly both the Land Acquisition Bill and GST Bill have been sent to Parliamentary Committees for ‘further consideration’.

The Dawood Fumble

Even as Modi found good reason to pat VK Singh on the back for supervising the evacuations of Indians and other nationals from Yemen, and to laud the prompt neighbourly help provided to earthquake hit Nepal, from the Union Home Ministry came the Dawood fumble, a statement that the government ‘did not know’ the whereabouts of India’s Most Wanted Man.

Sure, Rajnath Singh set the record straight by re-asserting that Dawood was still ‘in Pakistan’, but the gaffe, in some ways sums up the kind of session this has been for the Government.