With the new government at New Delhi taking charge of the corridors of power, all eyes are now on the maiden session of  17^th Lok Sabha which is set to begin on June 17  and continue till  July 26.  At this juncture a question that is sure to arise in the mind of any Indian voter who has contributed in the formation of this Lok Sabha will be whether the parliamentary proceedings in the coming five years will have the same old ingredients of pandemonium and disruption, or is it going to be something exemplarily disciplined.

The question is a pertinent one since  disruption  has become a  pervasive  feature of the functioning of Indian Parliament  and  are much talked in public sphere with  considerable reprimand. From throwing paper balls to  running  straight to the well of the house with placards  displaying  protest slogans and  Speaker trying to restore tranquility, the Indian  people  have had a taste of all through  the TV  screens taking them live. A deep feeling of disgust is natural, since not only are disruptions a waste of valuable time of the hallowed institution of the world’s  largest democracy, it’s also  something  that contributes  significantly  negative  to its  image.

The 16^th Lok Sabha which  began on June 4, 2014 and had its last session on February 13, 2019 worked for a total number of 1,615 hours which is although  20% more than 15^thLok Sabha, is 40% lower than the average of all full term Lok Sabhas  which is 2,689 hours. The number of sitting days  were also on a general decline  in this edition  since  it sat for 331 days, lower than the  overall average of  the full terms of 468 days. The lower house  also lost 16% of its scheduled time to disruptions, even if better than  37% of 15^th LS, but worse than the 14^th  when it was 13%. But the budget session of 2018 will be remembered as one of the least productive Lok Sabha in recent memory whenwhere four out of five hours stipulated for business were lost due to interruptions  causing huge loss  to the  exchequer.

But  the electorate  send  their  representatives to this temple of democracy with the  hope that  he or she would  discuss and  debate bills and  enact the best laws for the country. They also expect that  opposite views and objectives, which are quite natural  in a democracy  are to be debated  with fine oratory skills  and not  necessarily  culminate into chaos and frenzy.

The members of the current parliament will be thanked  generously if an ideal  paradigm  is  created  which would inspire the posterity to replicate and thereby strengthen the  Indian democracy in the long run.

---

Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

<< Back to News List