Least performing 15th Lok Sabha

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha constitute our Parliament. Lok Sabha is called Lower House while Rajya Sabha is called Upper House. Parliament is considered as the highest institution in democracy. It is the place where its members elected by the people discuss the issues of public concerns on priority basis. But in the recent years, the sanctity of Parliament has been lowered to such a level as could be called it a fish market. It is only due to the unseemly behaviour of the some members of Parliament irrespective of their party affiliations, it is stalled umpteen times when in session thereby hampering its business. The 15the Lok Sabha, which is to end in a month, is proving itself as the worst performing. Since the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government came back to power in 2009 for the second consecutive time, no session of Parliament has been allowed to run business for the benefit of the people. For the non-functioning of Parliament, both the ruling and the opposition benches are equally responsible. Neither the opposition plays constructive role nor the ruling takes upon itself the responsibility to run the Parliament for the benefit of the people. This term of the UPA government also appears to be worst performing since the country got independence. In less than a month’s time, the 15th Lok Sabha’s term will come to an end with the dubious distinction of being the worst performing House since independence, passing the least number of bills (165) in a five-year term. Of the 126 bills pending in Parliament, 72 are pending in the Lower House, which means they will die when the new Lok Sabha is constituted. The remaining 54 bills pending in Rajya Sabha will live to see another day but considering that the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill has been waiting for passage since 1987, there is not much hope for them either. The ruling bench must understand that it has greater responsibility to transact parliamentary business so that it could successfully deal with the problem of the people. If the Parliament runs for fewer hours, it means it would address to fewer problems of the people. The deadlock in Parliament over one issue or the other in its successive sessions result in the drain of public exchequer and hamper the development of the nation. Unless and until the confrontationist attitude both by the ruling and by the opposition parties is abjured, no session of Parliament can transact business. In the recent days, it has been experienced that most of the members of Parliament are more interested in attracting media attention than involving themselves in reasoned debate and discussion to find the solution of people’s problems. People elect their representative to Parliament to raise their issues and discuss them threadbare to find the suitable solution. Instead of that, the members are always indulged in vociferous speech without any rhyme or reason. Their main motive is only to grab media attention no matter whether it is for right or wrong reasons.