The winter session of Parliament begins today. It is the year's last session and usually begins in the third week of November. This year, it is starting after the conclusion of the Gujarat elections. Our Parliament does not have a fixed calendar for its sittings. Therefore, successive governments have tinkered with the national legislature's session dates to accommodate campaigning by political parties in state elections. The last Gujarat elections in 2017 also pushed the winter session back to the second week of December.
This year has highlighted that all is not well with our parliamentary functioning. Disruptions have bogged the national legislature throughout the year. In the last session, Rajya Sabha suspended 23 and Lok Sabha, four of its members, for preventing the House from functioning. Lok Sabha revoked the suspension of its members, but the suspension of upper House members continued for the rest of the session. Protests by MPs led to both the Houses losing half their working time in the monsoon session.
