Critically comment on the shifts in the functioning of the Indian Parliament in the last two decades. (2026, 15 Marks)
Over two decades Parliament’s functioning has tracked the party system more than its rules. Coalition government (2004–14) gave way to what Suhas Palshikar calls a second dominant party system (2014–24), and then to a coalition-dependent BJP majority after 2024. Each phase altered how much Parliament deliberates, scrutinises and restrains.
Three phases
| Phase | Scrutiny | Floor |
|---|---|---|
| Coalition, 2004–14 | Bills referred to committees: 60% (14th LS), 71% (15th LS); RTI, MGNREGA, Lokpal and food-security laws reshaped in committee | Chronic disruption — the 2010 winter session lost over the 2G JPC demand |
| Dominance, 2014–24 | Referral fell to 28%, then 16% (17th LS); 35% of bills passed with under an hour’s debate | 274 sittings in the 17th LS; 146 MPs suspended (2023); no Deputy Speaker after 2019; no recognised LoP until 2024 |
| Constrained majority, 2024– | Referral only about 21%; 53% of bills passed in the session introduced; JPCs on the Waqf, simultaneous-elections and 130th Amendment bills | Monsoon 2026: Lok Sabha worked 15% of scheduled time, 2 of 380 starred questions answered orally, nine of eleven bills passed with only the minister speaking |
The critical shifts
- From deliberation to ratification — same-session passage, voice votes and the guillotine (about 80% of the budget voted undiscussed, 2019–23) have hollowed the second reading.
- Bypassing the Rajya Sabha — money-bill certification (Aadhaar 2016) and the farm laws’ disputed voice vote (2020), repealed in 2021 after street protest, relocated deliberation to the pavement and the court.
- Erosion of conventions — an empty Deputy Speakership since 2019, mass suspensions, and a removal resolution against Speaker Om Birla defeated in March 2026.
- Opposition as spectacle — disruption, practised by every opposition, starves Question Hour.
Counter-currents
- Arithmetic restored a veto — with Rahul Gandhi as Leader of the Opposition from 2024, the 131st Amendment Bill was negatived on 17 April 2026 (298–230), short of two-thirds.
- Capacity when willed — the Lok Sabha worked about 86% of scheduled time in the 2026 Budget Session; the Income-tax Bill 2025 was rewritten after select-committee scrutiny.
- Modernisation and inclusion — the new building (2023), paperless Digital Sansad systems and the 106th Amendment reserving one-third of seats for women, though tied to delimitation.
- Global pattern — executive dominance is common to parliamentary democracies, as K. C. Wheare observed; India’s version is sharper because of the Tenth Schedule.
Evaluation
The shifts are real but asymmetric. Parliament retains its power to refuse — it blocked a constitutional amendment — yet its routine power to scrutinise keeps shrinking whatever the arithmetic. Devesh Kapur and Pratap Bhanu Mehta‘s diagnosis holds: the House has grown socially more diverse while less effective as an instrument of accountability.
Conclusion
Parliament has moved from a noisy but scrutinising coalition chamber to a quieter ratifying one, partially checked since 2024. Restoring its deliberative core needs institutional fixes — a minimum sitting calendar, mandatory committee referral, a Deputy Speaker from the opposition — not merely a stronger opposition.