The Hindu : National : Azad for flexible approach to number of Parliament sittings

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Thursday, Dec 23, 2004

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National

Azad for flexible approach to number of Parliament sittings

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 22. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, today said he favoured a flexible approach to the number of sittings of Parliament in a year, which should be "need-based... no minimum number of sittings, no maximum."

The question arose as yesterday during a meeting of party leaders with the Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, several party leaders, especially Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) and Yerran Naidu (Telugu Desam), suggested that there should be a hundred sittings of Parliament in a year, which in effect meant that Parliament should be in session for 140 days (including weekends).

Although none of the party leaders opposed this view, there was a sharp exchange of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Government when Leader of the House, Pranab Mukherjee, suggested that while an increase in the number of sittings would be welcome "there would be little point" in this if the House were to be disrupted. He was reported to have suggested that the Government would be agreeable to the proposition if the Opposition could give an assurance that the House would not be held up.

This led to an immediate retort by the deputy leader of the BJP, V.K. Malhotra, who resented the suggestion that his party was creating problems in the smooth functioning of the House. Mr. Malhotra reportedly said that "no guarantee" could be given as it was the Opposition's duty and obligation to raise issues of public interest. Apparently, he also referred to the disruptions of Parliament by the Congress Party when it was in the Opposition.

Again, Mr. Mukherjee countered this by pointing out that the Congress had never disrupted an entire session (as the BJP had done) and he challenged Mr. Malhotra to cite one example of the Congress having done this. He also made the point that the Opposition could always use the rules and procedures of Parliament to grill the Government on various issues.

`Business counts'

Today Mr. Azad pointed out that in this comparatively short winter session of 17 sittings "100 per cent business was done" with "100 per cent government business completed" and "100 per cent discussion on issues raised by the Opposition and others." On the other hand during the two-month long Budget session "only 10 per cent business could be transacted." He cited this to emphasise that what mattered was not the number of sittings but the amount of business transacted.

The Minister also pointed out that the committee system of discussing the Budget of various ministries was started in 1993 and a lot of what used to be done in Parliament was now being done during the month-long recess in the Budget session when "all MPs from all the different parties" work and discuss the Budget proposals for various ministries. He added that when the number of sittings in Parliament held prior to 1993 is compared with those after 1993 this aspect should be considered and "the one-month recess must be taken into account."

At the Speaker's meeting some MPs, including Ramji Lal Suman (Samajwadi Party) did point out that if Parliament's session covered 140 days in a year, and more time was taken up by parliamentary committee meetings, MPs would have little time left for their constituencies.

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