Madurai (Tamil Nadu) [India], August 29 : Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram on Saturday questioned the functioning of Parliament during the recently concluded Monsoon Session, alleging that 12 Bills were passed without proper debate or meaningful discussion.
Chidambaram was speaking at a conference titled "What Happened in Parliament?" in Madurai, where he compared the functioning of Parliament with that of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.
Addressing the public here, he said, "I have been in Tamil Nadu for the past five days, and I have been closely following television programmes as well as the debates taking place in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. Ministers are speaking, the Leader of the Opposition is speaking, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is speaking, and other members are participating in the debates. The Speaker is also giving rulings."
He alleged that Opposition leaders and members were not being given adequate opportunities to speak and that key bills were passed without debate.
"When we look at the proceedings of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, it appears that the Assembly is functioning much better than Parliament. In Parliament, the Leader of the Opposition is not being given an opportunity to speak. Ministers are not responding, members are not being allowed to speak, and the Speaker repeatedly asks members to take their seats," Chidambaram said.
He said the lack of debate during the Monsoon Session was "unfortunate". "What is unfortunate is that there has been virtually no meaningful debate during the Monsoon Session," he said.
"According to the list, 12 Bills have been passed during this session. However, none of these Bills was passed after a proper debate. They were passed without any meaningful discussion," Chidambaram said.
The former Union Finance Minister also questioned the provisions of a Bill aimed at preventing unfair practices in public examinations, saying that it largely focuses on punishment after malpractice has already occurred.
"There are also some rather amusing aspects to these 12 Bills. For example, there is a Bill aimed at preventing unfair practices in public examinations. But when you examine its provisions, there are hardly any measures to actually prevent such unfair practices. Instead, most of the provisions deal with punishing those involved after the malpractice has already taken place," he said.
"If that is the case, why call it a Bill to prevent unfair practices? It could instead be called a punishment Bill," he added.
Drawing attention to a common proverb, Chidambaram said, "There is a proverb in both Tamil and English: 'Locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.' Taking action only after an incident has occurred cannot be considered preventive action."
He further said that existing criminal laws already provide for punishment in cases of such offences and noted that new criminal laws have been introduced to replace the Indian Penal Code.
"There are already several criminal laws to punish people when such offences are committed. Moreover, new criminal laws have been introduced to replace the Indian Penal Code," Chidambaram said.
Despite this, he questioned the need for a separate law to prevent malpractice in public examinations, pointing to cancellations of examinations even after its passage.
"Despite this, a new law has now been brought in specifically to prevent malpractice in public examinations. Yet even after this law was passed, we continue to see instances where public examinations are being cancelled due to irregularities," he said.
"Two public examinations have been cancelled in Maharashtra, and one public examination has been cancelled in Rajasthan. Therefore, this law appears to be ineffective and has failed to serve the very purpose for which it was introduced," Chidambaram said.
The Monsoon Session of Parliament, which commenced on July 20, was adjourned sine die on August 13 after 19 sittings over 25 days.