A year after the Winter Session in Parliament ended amid Opposition protests and record-high suspensions of MPs, this year’s Winter Session saw proceedings marred by daily protests inside and outside the complex, disruptions to legislative business, and eventually scuffles leading to alleged injuries and an FIR against the Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
As far as work goes, the Winter Session was among the least productive since the NDA government led by Narendra Modi came to power over a decade ago, data from the PRS Legislative Research and the Lok Sabha Secretariat shows.
At just 52%, or 62 hours, of its planned time spent actually working, the Lok Sabha’s Winter Session was the least productive since the Monsoon Session of 2023. Since 2014, only eight other sessions have been less productive. In contrast, the previous session, which was the post-election Budget Session, worked for 135% of its scheduled time, or over 115 hours.
In the Rajya Sabha too, there was a decline in productivity. The Upper House spent 44 hours working, or just 39% of its scheduled time, compared to 93 hours or 112% of its scheduled time in the previous session. The Rajya Sabha hasn’t been this unproductive since the 2023 Budget Session.
Share of scheduled time spent functioning in LS and RS
Of the time spent functioning, just 23 hours were dedicated to legislative business in the Lok Sabha and nine hours in the Rajya Sabha. Much of the time in this session was spent on a discussion marking 75 years of the Constitution in both Houses.
Though the Winter Session in the Lok Sabha held 20 sittings, the most of any session this year, the Lower House lost 65 hours to disruptions. Only two sessions since 2014 have seen more hours lost to disruptions – 78 hours in the 2021 Monsoon Session and 96 hours in the 2023 Budget Session.
Hours lost to disruptions
But despite these disruptions, the Lok Sabha sat for just 22 extra hours to make up for lost time. In the previous Budget Session after the elections, the House sat for 34 extra hours.
In terms of Bills introduced and passed, this session figured among the lowest in the current and previous Lok Sabhas. Only five Bills were introduced and four were passed, the lowest in the last five years barring the 2023 Special Session, when just the women’s reservation Bill was passed.
Bills introduced and passed
Among the new Bills introduced in this session were two on the ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal, which have been referred to a joint committee of Parliament for further examination. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, which had been referred to a parliamentary panel and was expected to be tabled this session, was deferred to the next session.
The disruptions notwithstanding, no Bill was discussed for less than five hours in this session in the Lok Sabha. While the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was discussed for nearly five hours, the Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was discussed for nearly seven-and-a-half hours.
Question Hour, too, was less productive. Just 61 starred questions were answered orally in the House, compared to 86 in the previous session.
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