BJP Member of Parliament Sambit Patra has alleged that the Zero-hour and Question hour in Parliament repeatedly gets disrupted by Opposition leaders, depriving the MPs of a chance to raise pertinent issues in the House.
Parliament Sessions tend to get adjourned regularly over sloganeering, ruckus and uproar. But the Monsoon Session of Parliament this time around has been particularly inefficient.
Has Parliament Functioned At All?
This year’s Monsoon Session began on July 20, and is set to go on till August 13. As of August 4, 12 sitting days inside Parliament have taken place. As protests and slogans over the NEET paper leak and the Ram Mandir Donation Theft, there were several disruptions and delays.
In the first week of the session alone, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were hit with several major adjournments. So much so, that the Lower House of Parliament only functioned for 1.6 hours, which is just 5% of it’s scheduled time. Rajya Sabha on the other hand, so just 1.7 hours of functioning debate, which comes to just 6% of the total allotted time.
On July 27, both Houses were adjourned for the entire day. On July 31, although the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill was passed in Lok Sabha without debate, both Houses were adjourned fairly early.
The question hour and zero-hour hasn’t functioned even once this session due to constant uproar over first the NEET paper leak matter and now more recently, the Ram Temple theft scandal.
The Cost Of Adjournments
According to estimates, it costs nearly Rs. 2.5 lakh per minute to run Parliament, which comes to nearly Rs. 9 crore per sitting day. The estimated cost covers infrastructure, staffing, security, logistics and MPs’ allowances.
Of the totall 144 hours allotted across the 12 sitting days thus far, approximately 95% of the time has gone to waste in adjournments. That 95% figure comes to a whopping total in the ballpark of Rs. 150-190 crore for this session alone.
According to previous records and approximations, this session is shaping up to be one of the least efficient Parliament sessions in recent memory, even worse than the Monsoon Session in 2025.
Crucial Bills In Parliament
Two crucial bills were passed in Parliament during the Monsoon Session, namely the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Vande Mataram) and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill (Anti-Paper leak bill).
The Vande Mataram Bill criminalises any insult to the national flag, the constitution, the national anthem and now the national song, which is Vande Mataram.
Intentional prevention of singing the song or disruptions at any assemblies are punishable up to 3 year imprisonment, a fine or both. The bill was passed in Rajya Sabha on July 29 and in Lok Sabha on July 30.
The Anti-Paper leak bill was brought in to toughen the original 2024 Act, against exam frauds, paper leaks and tech-enabled cheating. The new changes propose harsher punishments for the accused.
Under the amendment, the accused are punishable up to 5-10 years and can be fined up to Rs. 50 lakh.