India's parliament too petty to get the job done
Amrit Dhillon says India's MPs seem more intent on blocking opponents than doing their duty
In a subversion of its true function in a democracy, India's current parliament rarely passes laws. Instead, the government wields parliament as a weapon to stonewall the opposition, and the opposition uses it to extract concessions from the government by continually disrupting proceedings.
Parliament in India functions only in fits and starts. At least 30 important bills are pending. They have not been debated, let alone passed, because unruly behaviour by the opposition has led to whole days being lost. If parliament were a company and MPs employees, they would have been sacked long ago.
Before the current winter session began on November 22, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party to let the legislative process operate smoothly.
Yet, the unruly, noisy and chaotic scenes have continued.
This time, the logjam is over the government's decision to allow foreign supermarkets to enter the country, a move critics say will ruin small stores.
But there is always some "reason". Last time, 13 days out of the month-long session were lost owing to the opposition's agitating and demanding the resignation of the prime minister over a coal-allocation scandal. Last year, 30 per cent of parliament's time was lost to disruptions, according to the non-partisan watchdog PRS Legislative Research.