Monsoon Session Of Parliament Exposed Increased Authoritarianism Of Ruling Party

As far as outcome is concerned, the month-long Monsoon Session of the Parliament of India that concluded on August 21, 2025, can be termed as near washout. Nevertheless, the symptoms it manifested signalled India’s great struggle ahead. The opposition battled for saving the Constitution and the democracy throughout the session, causing disruption and walkouts in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, while the ruling establishment tried their best to take advantage of the absence of the opposition to introduce and pass certain legislations, which in itself was mockery of democracy. One of the legislations is relating to removal of PM, CM, and Ministers, has not even an iota of justice within it, since it seeks their removal even without chargesheet, merely after being arrested for 30 days.

Therefore, any review of the Monsoon session, needs not only to be done on the basis of the outcome of the session, but also on the basis of the issues that was fought within both the Houses of the Parliament of India, and the things that the ruling establishment tried their best to push through, which included several legislations. The ruling NDA did not allow the issues to be discussed which the opposition wanted to discuss, barring the Operation Sindoor that the government agreed to discuss after a great struggle of the INDIA bloc. Due to disruption, the Lok Sabha could function for only 29% of its scheduled time, while the Rajya Sabha for only 34%. Question Hour functioned for 23% of scheduled time in the Lok Sabha and for 6% in the Rajya Sabha.

It is ominous that the parliament did not discuss the legislations thoroughly. There were Limited Discussion on Bills before passing within few minutes. About 27% of Bills introduced in the Lok Sabha have been referred to Committees. No Bills have been referred to Departmentally Related Standing Committees. About 50 per cent of Lok Sabha functioning time was spent on discussing Operation Sindoor. No private members’ business taken up in either House. And how serious the ruling establishment is on proper conduction of the Lok Sabha proceedings can be imagined by the fact that there has not been Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha since June 2019.

Opposition protests over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Roll in Bihar and ruckus over the Pahalgam attack and the subsequent development including Operation Sindoor and repeated claim of playing role in stopping the war between India and Pakistan disrupted the proceedings. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expressed his disappointment over the reduced productivity of the House. Union government’s refusal to allow discussion on SIR has chiefly contributed in the disruption in both the Houses, on daily basis. Om Birla blamed only the opposition and labelled it “organised disruptions.”

On the very first day of the session, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar had to resign, which was enforced on him by the ruling establishment, since he had accepted the opposition motion for removal of a judge for consideration. PM Narendra Modi led government could not accept such a move by the Vice President, and he was given enough hint – either resign of face impeachment. Dhankhar, who have criticized the government on several issues, including the issue of the farmers, had to opt for resignation. Nevertheless, a motion to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma (currently a judge of the Allahabad High Court) was admitted by the Lok Sabha Speaker. A three-member committee has been constituted to examine the issue.

Opposition was seen aggressive both inside and outside the parliament on the issue of SIR. For them it was the most important issues since the way the Election Commission of India was conducting it smacked its being aligning with the Centre led by PM Narendra Modi. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had demonstrated how Election Commission connived with Modi government in voter list manipulation, and alleged ‘vote theft’ during the Lok Sabha Election 2024, and subsequent Vidhan Sabha election in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Delhi.

It was alleged that large ECI allowed large number of fraudulent voters who tilted the balance in favour of the BJP, of which PM Narendra Modi was direct beneficiary. In the forthcoming Bihar election, ECI came out with such provisions that threatened large number of deletion of voters, allegedly to help BJP win the election. ECI then expressed their intention of conducting SIR across the country, which alarmed all the political parties in opposition. No wonder the SIR issue strongly united the INDIA bloc. They have committed themselves to defeat the allegedly unholy alliance of PM Narendra Modi and the ECI, and protested in the parliament causing daily disruption.

The ruling establishment then came out with a surprise legislation – the Constitution 130th amendment Bill, 2025, that made the opposition unity even stronger. Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced this bill along with two others on August 20, which were ultimately referred to the joint parliamentary committees amidst uproar in the House. The Constitution 130th Amendment Bill 2025, proposes automatic removal of election officials – Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, and Union Ministers – if they are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days on serious criminal charges.

The Opposition views it threat to their existence, another attack on the Constitution and the democracy in the country. They have already been alleging that Modi government has been implicating the leaders of the opposition in criminal cases under draconian laws, and unleased central investigation agencies like CBI, ED, NIA, Income Tax Department against them. Several of them were arrested and languished in jail without trial and chargesheets.

Introduction of such a bill indicates that the Union Government led by PM Narendra Modi is working towards authoritarian regime threatening the very justice, democracy, and constitutional values, alleged the INDIA bloc parties while committing themselves to even stronger battle to save them in the coming months, both inside and outside the parliament. They have made their point by fielding their Vice President candidate Balakrishna Sudershan Reddy who according to them symbolises the Constitutional values and democracy. (IPA Service)