Determined to push reforms despite parliamentary obstructionism: Jaitley

Riding high on its Lok Sabha numbers and the favourable outcomes in the recent Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government adopted an aggressive stance on Wednesday, suggesting that it could resort to joint Parliamentary sessions in 2015.

The Rajya Sabha, where the ruling NDA government is in a minority, saw disruptions throughout the winter session that ended on Tuesday (December 23). After the government resorted to ordinances to give force of law to key legislations stuck in the Rajya Sabha logjam, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Constitution had enough provisions to see that work did not get stalled. “If Parliament is not allowed to function, the framers of the Constitution had provided a mechanism,” he said, referring to Article 123 that provides for promulgation of ordinances.

Asked if the government expected the insurance Bill to be passed in the next session, he told journalists: “Hopefully, it should be approved. Otherwise, there is still a mechanism.”

Replying to a query on whether the mechanism was a joint session of the two Houses of Parliament, Mr. Jaitley quipped: “You already know the answer.”

Articles 108 and 118 of the Constitution provide for joint sitting of Houses in certain cases, including for passage of Bills.

Mr. Jaitley’s remarks came on a day when he paid tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as being a product of multi-party democracy and champion of consensus politics. The Cabinet had also decided to confer the Bharat Ratna on Mr. Vajpayee.

Mr. Jaitley said that the ordinances were a demonstration of the government’s resolve to push reforms despite “parliamentary obstructionism.”

“The ordinance demonstrates the firm commitment of this government to reforms. It also announces to the world that this country can no longer wait even if one House of Parliament waits indefinitely to take up its agenda,” he said.

The BJP has added numbers to its kitty by bettering its performance in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir this year. But it is still in a minority in the Upper House: the Congress has 69 members and the BJP, 43.

A senior Minister, who did not want to be named, said if the Opposition tries to stall work in the Rajya Sabha repeatedly, the government would exercise the option of calling joint sessions of the two Houses. “The Congress has finished fourth in both States. They are unable to compete with even the regional parties. Our [Rajya Sabha] numbers will change sharply in 2016.”

February 2015 will see the first set of Rajya Sabha vacancies from Jammu and Kashmir, where the BJP has finished with 25 Assembly seats on Tuesday. While the Lok Sabha clocked 102 per cent productive hours in the winter session, the Rajya Sabha worked only for 61 per cent of the allotted time.