Why UPA’s final Parliament session will also be a washout

For a government that has only passed 165 Bills in Parliament in four and a half years, it seems a trifle ambitious to aim for the passage of 39 Bills in the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha, which is a short one, just a fortnight long. Ironically, even if the UPA were to pass all 39 legislations it proposes to, its total will fall short of 215 Bills, the previous lowest total passed by a government that lasted a full term.

Parliament. PTI image

It would only be a fitting tribute to the Congress-led UPA if the final Parliament session of its blundering second term in office ended in partial paralysis, with only a minimum amount of work done. Parliament has little choice but to pass the Vote on Account (or the interim budget) so that government can continue to spend (most importantly to pay the salaries of its employees and to pay doles to voters) until the next government presents its own budget in July. But any business that is transacted beyond this would be a bonus for the UPA.

From the UPA's point of view, it is now only necessary to push legislation that will reap a dividend in terms of votes in the General Election. That rules out most economic legislation (apart from the Interim Budget which cannot contain major policy changes), which will not yield short term benefits. The clear top priority for the Congress is the Bill on Telangana, which could hold the key to 17 Lok Sabha seats in what is Andhra Pradesh in today's date. The fact that the Andhra Pradesh assembly rejected the resolution to divide the state has made the Congress's task in Parliament harder. That its own Chief Minister is in open rebellion is a negative. It would also be entirely reasonable to expect MPs from the Seemandhra region (Congress and TDP) to storm to the well of the Lok Sabha and disrupt as much of Parliament's time as possible. That has been the trend in recent sessions. Also, the opposition, particularly the BJP, which might otherwise support the creation of Telangana, sees little dividend in helping a tottering Congress from scoring any achievement at this late stage.

The only other Bills the Congress hopes to pass are the five anti-corruption related legislations (which Rahul Gandhi has recently adopted), which include the Judicial Accountability Bill. The passage of these Bills isn't likely to salvage the Congress's reputation on corruption. The initiative has come far too late. The opposition, led by the BJP, will raise the latest revelations on the Agusta Westland VVIP chopper deal (which features the names of top Congress leaders) to create a ruckus over corruption. After all, the Opposition will equally want to leverage the final session of Parliament to make its own case before voters.

There is every chance that the final session of the 15th Lok Sabha will be dominated by the din of non-legislative matters. The Congress would be delighted if it were to secure the passage of just one of the 39 bills it proposes to bring to the attention of the House. And that would be the bill on Telengana. The BJP would be delighted to see it fail even in that limited endeavor. It would, of course, help the BJP and other Opposition parties if the Congress's own MPs from Seemandhra stall the session. That will prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Congress's worst enemy between 2009 and 2014 has been itself.