The winter session of Parliament ended bitterly with political parties accusing each other of stifling debate. The national legislature passed legal proposals on surrogacy, assisted reproductive technology and dam safety during the session. And towards its end, the government pushed through a contentious bill that links the Aadhaar ID to the voter roll data. A silver lining from the session was the sending of four bills to parliamentary committees for scrutiny. One of these bills increases the marriage age of girls to 21 years. This year, despite the passing of several laws, the imagery associated with Parliament will be of disruptions and not debate.
2022 will be an action-packed year for Parliament. There will be elections to three constitutional offices that are part of the legislature. The term of President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu ends in July and August. Then, the office of the Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha has been vacant for the last two and a half years, the longest in our parliamentary history. In addition to these, the tenure of 75 Rajya Sabha MPs will also end by August of 2022.