The Big Story: Delayed action

By convention this would be the time of the year that Members of Parliament start returning to Delhi to prepare for the winter session, which traditionally begins in the third week of November. Yet this year MPs are still not arriving in the capital, and it has nothing to do with the horrible air quality of the city. Instead, the government has yet to convene its panel on parliamentary affairs, which decides the dates for a Parliamentary Session. There has been no public announcement from the government or the Bharatiya Janata Party which leads it either. As things stand, we do not know if there even will be a winter session of Parliament.

Convention dictates that the panel on Parliamentary affairs provide for a 15-day cushion before they convene a Session of Parliament, primarily to allow MPs to make their way to Delhi. This means that, if there is to be a winter Session this year at all, it will now be pushed into December. The reason being given for the delay, via unnamed sources and not through official comments, is that most leaders are busy campaigning in Gujarat, where elections are due in less than a month. The Opposition, on record, agrees, saying the delay is due to Gujarat elections but not because leaders are indisposed. Instead, the Congress has claimed that the BJP is afraid of bad press and being cornered on issues like the botched rollout of the Goods and Services Tax ahead of voting in the state.

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Pushing a Session into December is not unheard of. In 2008 and 2013, the Winter Session was held only after the final date of polling in several states. And there have been many occasions in which a Session has been held even as elections are on, including the last three Gujarat assembly polls. But, in recent memory at least, the Session has not been postponed beyond December 10. The final date of Gujarat assembly elections this year is December 14.

The complete silence from the government on the Session has been particularly alarming, especially considering quotes from unnamed BJP sources telling reporters in the media that there may not even be a Winter Session at all. That would not violate any rules, but it would count as yet another sign of how little the BJP cares for the institutions that make up India’s republican democracy. Ironically, the need for it to be postponed – if indeed the government wants the Session to begin after polling in Gujarat – is the result of a delay in announcement of the election dates in that state, which in turn the BJP was accused of having delayed through pressure on the Election Commission.

The BJP has huge numbers in both houses of Parliament. It has a brute majority in the Lok Sabha, and is the single-largest party in the Rajya Sabha. That should give it more reason to rely on this institution, which defines Indian democracy. Instead, it has constantly tried to bypass Parliament, through the use of ordinances, money bills and the lack of time spent discussing important legislation. While Parliament has been much more productive over the last three years, there has also been the impression that the government considers it dispensable, with murmurs of the BJP desiring a more presidential system that would bypass it altogether. Wantonly delaying the Winter Session, with talk of doing away with it altogether, does nothing to change that impression.

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Punditry

  1. “Cards might well be on their way out. But making ATMs redundant is a task of vastly different proportions,” says a leader in Mint.
  2. “It would be fair to say that by forcing modifications in the GST system, the Surat traders very successfully blackmailed the government,” writes Swapan Dasgupta in the Telegraph. “However, what is important to note is that the government was responsive.”
  3. Salil Tripathi in Mint says that India’s institutions, whether it is the Army or the judiciary, are in need of strengthening, both in setting out their values and upholding the ones they have held on to for years.
  4. “Cash flows during elections not to buy votes but rather to support a campaign. Cash is an important grease to run a smooth campaign machinery for a number of reasons,” write Pradeep Chhibber, Rahul Verma and Harsh Shah in the Hindu.
  5. Fearful of the savage minefields emerging around it, India hopes the United States will – push come to shove –stand with it in Asia. Hope, however, is not a policy,” writes Praveen Swami in the Indian Express.

Giggle

Don’t miss

Malini Nair tells us about the research of a scholar on women’s college magazines from the early 20th century which reveal how on Indian campuses, some things haven’t changed.

Krishnan discovered the magazines were an unusual, intriguing, honest and oded glimpse into the way women thought, lived and felt in the early years of women’s education. They were edited, monitored and controlled by faculty editors but if you looked long enough, you were sure to find riveting material.

“Girls write frequently about hostel pranks and friendships, about relationships between senior and junior students and about living away from home for the first time,” said Krishnan. “They also write on more serious matters: for instance, I’m currently writing a paper about a 1941 debate at WCC on whether civil disobedience could be reconciled with Christian ethics.”