Parliament session ends amid deepening political animosity

New Delhi : Parliament was adjourned sine die on Friday, capping off a tumultuous session that saw a robust debate on the country's constitutional journey and the introduction of two landmark bills on simultaneous elections before plunging to a new low of political animosity over the alleged insult of B R Ambedkar.

As Parliament met on the last day of the Winter Session, the overhang of mutual bitterness involving the ruling National Democratic Alliance and opposition parties following Thurs-day's spat persisted, forcing Speaker Om Birla in Lok Sabha to adjourn the House within three minutes without even the customary summing up of the Session's highlights.

It was only a little better in Rajya Sabha as opposition parties, which have been protesting against Home Minister Amit Shah's alleged insulting comments for Ambedkar, agreed to let Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar read out his valedictory remarks before adjourning the House sine die.

The Lok Sabha's productivity was nearly 58 per cent, according to its secretariat, a far cry from days when it hovered around 100 per cent and even beyond. In his concluding remarks, Dhankhar called upon parties to rise above political differences and restore the sanctity of parliamentary discourse, striking a note of balance amid opposition's charge that he has often been partisan. He said the House effectively functioned for just 43 hours and 27 minutes with a productivity of merely 40.03 percent during the Winter Session that began on November 25.

At a press conference, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Ri-jiju laid the blame on the door of opposition, especially the Congress, saying their continuous protest despite an earlier agreement to allow Parliament to run was the principal reason behind the low productivity.

He said all parties must reflect on what is a matter of great concern, adding that as the minister in-charge of parliamentary affairs he will continue to reach out to opposition leaders.

During the Session, five bills were introduced in Lok Sabha, which passed four of them. The Rajya Sabha passed three bills. A special session was also held in the 'Samvidhan Sadan' to commemorate the Constitution Day on November 26. If Thurs-day's pushing and shoving involving MPs of rival parties, which left two BJP members hospitalised and led to a police case against Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, was the low point of the Session, a spirited discussion on the "Glorious journey of 75 years of the Constitution of India" for two days in each House reflected the best of parliamentary de-bate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sharp denunciation of the Congress, especially the Nehru-Gandhi family, for its "mutila-tion" of constitutional values was heard by opposition benches in the Lok Sabha without any serious disruption, and so was Home Minister Amit Shah's reply to the debate in Rajya Sabha. However, opposition parties seized on a couple of sentences of Shah's reply to accuse him of insulting B R Ambedkar, the archi-tect of India's Constitution, and launch protests inside and out-side Parliament.