Parliament\'s Winter Session: A Report Card

Manish Swarup/Associated PressA statue of Mahatma Gandhi overlooking the Indian Parliament in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI-After its monsoon session collapsed without a single law being passed, India's Parliament managed to approve a few landmark bills in its just-concluded winter session, but not without wasting most of its time.

The first four days of the latest session, which began Nov. 22, were tied up in the opposition's demand for discussion on the central government's proposal to allow foreign direct investment in the retail sector. The government was reluctant to start a debate that could stretch out for days but agreed under pressure. F our days after much back-and-forth yelling, Parliament voted to give its support to the retail investment plan.

The Lok Sabha, or lower house of Parliament, had 20 sittings for a total of 61 hours and 45 minutes, but most of that time was lost to disruptive behavior by lawmakers, according to the Lok Sabha speaker, Meira Kumar, in her session-concluding speech.

“In this session, the house sat late for 11 hours and 27 minutes,” she said. “But regrettably we lost over 59 hours and 7 minutes due to interruptions, followed by forced adjournments.”

Her most repeated phrase in the lower house was “Kripya baith jaiye. Kripya shant rahiye” (please sit down, please remain silent).

The Lok Sabha passed seven bills, including the Banking Amendment Bill, which allows the creation of private banks and strengthens central bank regulatory powers, and legislation to combat money laundering.

During the session, 400 starred questions were listed, out of which only 49 questions could be answered, Mrs. Kumar said. “Thus, on an average about 2.45 questions could be answered per day, which, you will agree, is extremely low,” she said.

The productivity report from the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, showed that it also had 20 sittings, for a total exceeding 57 hours, but about 47 hours were wasted. The upper house sat late for 11 hours to make up lost time.

Eight government bills were passed in the session, including measures that would provide quotas for promotions for lower castes and tribes in government jobs, prevent money laundering and amend banking laws.

The most contentious discussions in both houses were about a quota for the promotion of government workers from the lower castes a nd tribes, foreign direct investment in the multibrand retail sector, Wal-Mart's alleged lobbying activities in India and the gang rape of a medical student in Delhi.

Meanwhile, important bills have been pending in Parliament for some time, like legislation that would create Lokpal, an anticorruption ombudsman, were not taken up because time ran out.