WINTER SESSION - PROMISE OF STORMY WEATHER

By Ruma Dubey

The Parliament Winter session begins tomorrow  and as usual, rightly so, there are great expectations. More than us Indians, the FIIs , foreign direct investors and PE funds will be looking at the session with much anticipation. The UPA Govt, at its Cabinet meetings made a lot of rhetoric announcements and showed that it was serious about business in India. FDI is a big issue and everything that it did and said, all comes and stops at the Parliament – the buck stocks there.

If one were to go by its past session, the current session does not bode too well as this time around, when the Parliament was closed, there were too many scandals and scams, all which are expected to dominate the session.

A quick look at the performance of the Monsoon session ,  from 8th Aug’12 to 7th Sept’12:

• Lok Sabha worked for 20% of the scheduled hours and Rajya Sabha for 27%. 
• 102 Bills are pending at the end of this Monsoon Session.
• One Bill was withdrawn, 6 legislative Bills were introduced and 4 Bills were passed during the session.
• Totally six bills were passed in Lok Sabha - Chemical Weapons  Convention (Amendment) Bill, 2012; AIIM (Amendment) Bill, e North-Eastern Areas (Reorganization) Amendment Bill, Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Work Place Bill, National Highways Authority of India (Amendment)  Bill and National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences, Bangalore, Bill. It was one of the worst sessions of the Parliament.
• Each minute of running Parliament during sessions costs the exchequer Rs.2.5 lakh per minute.

Parliament meets for the Winter Session between November 22 and December 20, 2012.  There will be a total of 20 sittings. The agenda for legislation includes 25 Bills pending for consideration and passing.   The government plans to introduce 10 new Bills. FDI in retail is not the only important bill; a quick look at some of the important Bills to be tabled in current Winter session:

• The Forward Contracts (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2010,
• The Warehousing Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2011,
• The Companies Bill, 2011,
• The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011 – more power to RBI and increasing the voting rights of large shareholders in private banks to 26% from 10%; essential bill to get the New banking license ball rolling
• The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008 – to hike FDI from 49% to 26%,
• The Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011,
• The Prevention of Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2011,
• The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011 – FI investment up to 49% in local pension-fund managers,
• Bill for reservation of women in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies; passed by Rajya Sabha
• Bill for reservation in services to SCs/STs
• The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011

But being realistic, should we expect much from this session? The politics at play is huge, with Mamata threatening to go for the No Confidence motion and the BJP has a lot of its own meat to fry. Debates do not happen in the Parliament, they happen only on TV channels.  Most expect the session to be stormy, with adjournments being the norm. Thus getting work done might remain a pipe dream. The UPA has done the smart thing by talking to other allies – Samajwadi and BSP and the PM even reached out for the BJP. But will these meets now come to the rescue and help the very heavy legislative session to move ahead? A log jam at this juncture will push India further down the cliff.