The Monsoon session of Parliament has been underway since July 21, but, except for two days, when the Operation Sindoor debate was taken up, the proceedings of both the houses — Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha — were marred by continuous adjournments due to the disruptions and protests by the opposition members over several issues.
Opposition’s protests over the revision of the Bihar voter list rocked Lok Sabha, prompting the Speaker to call an all-party meeting, which agreed upon a discussion on “Operation Sindoor” instead.
A similar situation evolved in the Rajya Sabha, where opposition members sought special discussion on the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Exercise, but ended up discussing “Operation Sindoor” only. The upper house also witnessed repeated adjournments due to continuous protests by the opposition members and failed to maintain productivity.
The Monsoon session has worked in a similar pattern year after year, failing to tap its full productivity the majority of times, with average sitting hours decreasing every year. An analysis of the PRS data shows occasional spikes in productivity helped it maintain average productivity close to that of the Winter session, but it often hovered around half of its potential productivity in Lok Sabha. The situation was worse in the case of the Rajya Sabha.
Monsoon Session Remained Least Productive In 9-Year Trend In Lok Sabha
The Monsoon session registered an average of 72.5 per cent productivity in Lok Sabha over a 9-year period spanning from 2015 to 2023. While the Winter session of Parliament performed slightly better with 73.4 per cent, the Budget session recorded 95 per cent average productivity in the same period.
In the year 2024, the Central government presented an interim budget and tabled an official budget in the Monsoon session after the Modi government retained its third consecutive term in June 2024. The official data on the productivity of the 2024 Monsoon session is not yet available. Therefore, our analysis focuses on data up to 2023.
Sitting Hours Of Monsoon Session Decreased Post-COVID
The average sitting hours of the Monsoon session over 4 years dropped significantly by 53 per cent from the pre-pandemic to the post-pandemic period. From 2015 to 2018, the Monsoon session sat for an average of 89 hours; however, its sitting hours dropped to an average of 42 hours during the post-pandemic years from 2020 to 2023. The data for the year 2019 was not available due to the pandemic.
Rajya Sabha’s Productivity Lags Behind
The Monsoon Session of Parliament showed varying levels of productivity in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. In Lok Sabha, the session’s productivity hovered around half of its potential during 9 years, with a few exceptions. In 2016, 2018 and 2020, the session’s productivity exceeded 100 per cent, reaching 101 per cent, 110 per cent, and 145 per cent, respectively.