As per a report available in public domain, the 12th Haryana Assembly that ended in October 2014 sat for to total of 54 days during the five year period, an average of 11 days per year. Kerala assembly on the other hand sat for 50 days per year in a corresponding period.
In this period 129 bills were discussed and passed on the same day there were introduced. Not a single bill was referred to any committee.
Key laws passed included Haryana State Commission for Women, Haryana Prohibition of Ragging in Educational Institution Bill and Punjab Agricultural Produces Markets (Haryana) Amendment bill, Markets (Haryana Amendment) Bill.
The situation is almost identical in 2024.
BJP has been ruling the state for the last 10 years, while it was in the opposition in 2009-2014. But it did nothing to improve this metric.
Recent reports suggest that the Haryana Assembly met for 14.4 days on an average in the last five years, 2019-2024 period.
Crucial bills and budgets were passed, just like before, on the same day without much discussion.
What happens when bills are passed on the same day?
Well, the opposition is not given any time to prepare and ask questions on the bill to the government. Thus bills that have deficiencies are often passed by use of brute majority in the assembly in connivance with the speaker of the house.
This trend can be seen across the country. It was a major trend in Gujarat when Narendra Modi became the CM of Gujarat in 2001. He would not only introduce bills on the last day of the assembly session and get them passed among chaos but also not attend the assembly at all. This trend continues till date.
Democracy lives in dissent. If dissent is removed, then democracy is as good as dead. A brute majority can really hurt democracy. It gives unbridled power to the ruling party. This has been seen on the national scene too. Between 2014 to 2024, BJP and Narendra Modi used brute force to push through questionable legislation’s. So much so, that it had to eat humble pie when farmers protest forced it to roll back the three farm laws that were introduced with much fanfare.
After the 2024 General Elections, this trend has got reversed. BJP no longer has a brute majority. It is dependent on Chandra Baba Naidu and Nitish Kumar to survive as a Government. Thus we have seen many bills that have got deferred or referred to select committees. Some bills have been sent into cold storage too
General public is not much concerned or bothered with what happens in our assemblies. They forget that it is the law makers who create policies that affect everyone. Sometime policies like GST are created without due consultation and suffer because not enough discussion was ever done on them. The government of the day assumes that what the bureaucrats have created is right and go ahead and implement it. If a policy undergoes rigorous discussion and the voice of the opposition is taken into consideration, then many an error can be eliminated.
But our megalomaniac leaders will have nothing to do with debate and discussion. For them it is ‘their- way-or-the-highway.
General public should question the legislators when they come to them asking for their vote. Why so much little time was spent on passing the bills?
It is only if and when the general public wakes up that there can be a change in the attitude of the legislators.
Given below is the track record for 2019-2024 assembly.
