How the 16th Lok Sabha fared (Performance analysis of the latest LS)

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 How the 16th Lok Sabha fared (Performance analysis of the latest LS)

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• Five years are over : The 16th Lok Sabha met for only 1615 hours, 40% lower than all full-time Parliaments.
• The number of sitting days have gone down (over the decades) and lots of disruptions happened.
• This LS sat for 331 days in all (average of all previous is 468 days). 16% time lost to disruptions.
• Breaking the rules : MPs often disrupted by carrying placards, entering the well, and blocking others from speaking. The Question Hour was a big loss - LS lost 1/3 time, and RS 60%, and only 18% of starred questions got an oral reply.
• Speaker's approach : She allowed the Union Budget to pass, but blamed unruly behaviour for her inability to count the number of MPs demanding a no-confidence motion against the government.  (This was just like in the 15th LS, when the Speaker allowed the Act on AP bifurcation to pass, but did not conduct the NCM).
• Important work done :

1. The GST was implemented, and IBC enacted.
2. The IIM Act gave a new level of autonomy.
3. The Juvenile Justice Act allowed children 16-18 yrs, who have committed heinous crimes, to be tried as adults.
4. New Acts made - Treatment of mental health patients, Rights of persons with disabilities, etc.

• PCA : The Prevention of Corruption Act now makes bribe-giving an offence. Declaration of assets outside India is a must now, and economic offenders are called fugitives if they run away. The Aadhar Act was passed too.
• Aadhar Act controversy : It was passed as a Money Bill and later, strangely, upheld by the Supreme Court.

1. A money bill as per Article 110 of the Constitution, must be related to taxation or government spending
2. It needs only LS approval, not RS's 
3. The govt. argued that Aadhar is basically a subsidy-delivery mechanism, and not an identity system!

• Another change : The Finance Bills come with the Budget, and carry all tax law changes as needed. So usually they are passed as a Money Bill. In recent years, many new items that are just not related to expenditures were included in the Finance Bills -

1. 2015 - Provision to merge the commodity exchanges regulator with SEBI
2. 2016 - Amendments to the FCRA (Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act) relating to donations to non-profits
3. 2017 - Changed the composition of 19 quasi-judicial bodies such as SAT, NGT and TDSAT, and repealed 7 other bodies like Competition Appellate Tribunal.
4. 2018 - Half the clauses were unrelated to taxes!
5. 2019 - Attaching property under the money laundering law.

• Lapsed Bills : The Triple Talaq Bill and hugely contentious CAB (Citizenship Amendment Bill) were passed but will lapse as RS did not pass them. It is clear that the government did whatever it wanted in the LS, and was checked only by the RS.
• A big problem : The anti-defection law has turned the MPs from being people's representatives, to being just party delegates that can never differ on the floor of the house. This can be very dangerous for Indian democracy.
• What is the Parliament for? It is the forum to hold the government responsible, and scrutinise each law that is proposed. Time to take a rethink of what is going on - the Anti-Defection Law has hollowed our Parliament.
• Summary : The way the 16th LS functioned puts a big question mark on the fallout of the Anti-Defection Law, which has turned MPs into meek party delegates.

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