Despite Delays and Face-Offs, Parliament Sees Off Productive Winter Session

New Delhi: The truncated and delayed Winter Session of Parliament ended on Friday with both Houses being adjourned sine die after 20 days of business.

According to data by New Delhi-based PRS Legislative Research, a think-tank which tracks the functioning of Indian Parliament, the Winter Session witnessed better productivity than last year.

From December 15 to January 4, the total number of hours the session remained open for discussion in the Lok Sabha was 49.6 hours. For the Rajya Sabha, it was 31.7 hours. This means that productivity percentage in both Houses — Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha — remained 83% and 54%, respectively.

The productivity in Question Hour, considered the most crucial hour of Parliament, however, remained low throughout Winter Session. Question Hour is the first hour of a session in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, which is devoted to questions that MPs raise about any aspect of administrative activity. In Lok Sabha, the Question Hour productivity remained at 56%, while, in Rajya Sabha, it saw a sharp decline and remained at an abysmal 26%.

As far as business is concerned, Lok Sabha did 50% legislative business compared to Rajya Sabha's 54%. When it comes to non-legislative business, the Lok Sabha conducted 22% of non-legislative business, while Rajya Sabha conducted 19%.

In 2016, the productivity of Lok Sabha during the Winter Session was 14%, whereas productivity of Rajya Sabha was 20%.

During the last Winter Session, both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha failed to conduct any substantive business as Opposition continuously created pandemonium, leading to early adjournment of the two Houses on multiple occasions.

In customary remarks before the start of this Winter Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that he “hoped it would be a fruitful and productive session.”

The start of the session saw the opposition parties, particularly the Congress, demanding an apology from the PM over comments he made against predecessor Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat election campaign. The party later demanded an apology following the 2G case verdict where all accused, including DMK leaders A Raja and Kanimozhi were acquitted.

Later, on January 3, a bill to ban instant triple talaq was tabled in the Rajya Sabha, but the Congress and the BJP indulged in a slugfest over the bill, pushing it to the Budget Session.