(Image source from: Was 15th Lok Sabha the worst performing Parliament?})
The 15th Lok Sabha will go down the annals of history as the worst performing, most messed up Parliament of the Indian republic.
Commotion and chaos were the order of the day. The Lok Sabha lost a full session to the issue of JPC in the 2G spectrum scam. There was also a mayhem over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resignation over his alleged involvement in the coal block allocation scam. Rumpus over Telangana division also stirred several anomalous developments in the House that saw 13 sittings. Nearly 16 MPs from Seemandhra region were expelled ahead of the creation of Telangana. The bill to split Andhra Pradesh tested the patience of the House unlike any other issue in the recent past.
What more, the ruling party passed only 165 bills compared to the average 317, during it's five-year tenure. As many as 126 bills are still in the pipeline. Just 13 per cent spent of its time spent on legislative business, with 74 major bills left pending and up to 20 bills passed with less than five minutes of discussion, including the interim budget 2014-15 Vote-on-account. Blame it on the political shenanigans and subterfuges, parliamentarians tearing drafts, breaking mikes, spraying pepper and disrupting the decorum, the recently concluded session of Lok Sabha was anything but civil and productive.
Now the big questions are: Why such a poor show? Why was the 15th Lok Sabha most disrupted?
Today, Indian politics have become intensely competitive with too many players jostling for importance and asserting themselves like never before. Indian politics is no more about Congress and BJP alone. There are other powerful players in the picture and they have their own political-electoral compulsions to manage. And yes, they are no longer submissive to the two political biggies in policy matters. The recently concluded session was noisy because there were too many voices, especially new ones, jostling to put their point through. Now that's democracy, isn't it?
Current crop of politicians are challenging the old order and new changes are taking shape. You can't really accuse Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal for spraying pepper in the Parliament. He was only trying to score a political point. The recent political state has reached a point where nothing works except a 'tamasha'. And with television giving a live coverage to the proceedings in the house, there couldn't be a better way for the political class to assert their point and woo the people they represent.
And, if the recently concluded Lok Sabha was bad, the next Parliament session could be even worse.
AW: Suchorita Choudhury
