Improving Parliamentary efficiency in India

August 22, 2021

How will efficiency of parliament increase?

Congress objected to Parliament session at night to commemorate passing of GST bill but the ruling BJP were determined to hold a night session of Parliament. Their logic was – why will only Jawaharlal Nehru have the monopoly to hold night session of parliament?

GST tax system initiated by UPA government of Dr. Manmohan Singh but they can’t clear the bill due to policy paralysis associated with that government. Opposition BJP and BJP chief ministers including Gujarat CM Modi opposed UPA’s GST bill. But the same GST bill with some modifications were passed by BJP government under PM Modi. GST bill itself was not bad as it unified the country with ‘one country one tax’ system and eliminated variation of tax from state to state creating inefficiency.

The GST implementation was chaotic to say the least. However, few years later, GST collection in all months of year 2021 is above Rs 1 lakh Crore, symbolizing stability in GST system.

Not just GST, other important bills passed by Modi government are Triple Talaq abolition, Article 370 abolition of Jammu and Kashmir, Bifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir to two union territory, CAA and NRC etc. The amount of work done by Modi government specially Modi 2.0 is so high that it created records of legislative efficiency, reduced wastage of time by opposition party pandemonium in floor of Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha and forced opposition leaders to be present in parliament to prevent newer bills passing by BJP.

This was a new experience by congress and other party politicians who always loved ‘sarkari style’ of functioning of parliament with low productivity with high noise and subsidized foods. The situation for opposition members were so bad that they found it difficult to go for a tea or natures call break from the parliament debate. They have tried to block the bills by all means including goon culture used in Bengal to rule the state but Modi government succeeded passing maximum number of bills in almost all parliament sessions since 2019. Adding more BJP MP's in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and BJP MLA's in state assembly will definitely help improve the efficiency of parliament.

Legislative activity before Modi