Two significant political messages emerged as the Modi government’s last Budget session before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls drew to an end, without conducting any business, except to ram through the 2018-19 Finance Bill amid an uproar that made discussion impossible.
The second was a new found confidence among regional parties that have been emboldened by recent unexpected developments to flex their muscles as they sense opportunities for themselves in 2019.
The teaming up of SP and BSP to crush the BJP in the bypolls in its UP bastions of Gorakhpur and Phulpur, the cracks in the NDA with the exit of TDP, criticism of the Modi government from allies and union ministers like Ram Vilas Paswan who seem dissatisfied, farmers’ protests and the nationwide Dalit outrage (the first of its kind) against the dilution of the SC/ST Atrocities Act – have all added up to a picture of a government under siege.
With Rahul Gandhi still in the throes of drafting a roadmap for Congress revival, regional satraps have been quick to seize the moment and set the ball rolling for a united opposition front, with or without the Congress, to take on Modi and the BJP in 2019.
In conventional terms, the Budget session was indeed a complete washout. The Lok Sabha spent just one percent of its time on legislative business. The Rajya Sabha performed a little better. Six percent of its time went in legislative work. In historical terms, this has been the worst and most unproductive budget session in 18 years.
While lamenting the waste of public money on parliamentarians who refuse to work, it would be unwise to ignore the political dynamics at play during the session. It is clear that the countdown to the 2019 polls has begun in right earnest and battle-lines are taking shape with regional satraps asserting themselves for a larger share in the political pie. Certainly, regional parties believe that their time has come as the BJP has begun its descent and the Congress is yet to rise.
The paralysis that was seen in the just concluded session can be interpreted in two ways. Either the government has no interest in making Parliament function and has decided to bypass the institution by relying on ordinances and executive orders to govern. Or, the government is sinking into a political morass as the impact of missteps like demonetization, a badly implemented GST, inattention to mounting agrarian distress, etc is catching up with it.
“The government is not ready to discuss our no-confidence motion. Why should we help them out with legislation and other business?’’ asked a senior parliamentarian.
“This Lok Sabha (the sixteenth) is finished,’’ exclaimed another. “We are all now in election mode.’’
Most Opposition leaders predicted that all future sessions of the parliament would be similarly paralysed in the run-up to 2019. And actually speaking, it would not be the first time.
Again, during the tenure of the Narasimha Rao government, the BJP scuttled an entire Winter Session in 1995 over the involvement of Telecom Minister Sukh Ram in a telecom scam. It was the first time that an entire session was washed out without any business being conducted. And significantly, it happened with less than a year to go for the Lok Sabha elections.
Going by the mood visible in the last few days of the budget session, it looks like the 16th Lok Sabha has run its course. Over to the people now to decide what kind of government they want in 2019.
(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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