How Opposition 'colluded' with Modi government to pass Finance Bill without discussion

Consider this ironic and anomalous situation. Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan did not allow the two no-confidence motions - by the YSR Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) - against the government on Friday (March 16) on the ground that the House was in disorder. She, however, allowed the passage of the Finance Bill, 2018 on March 13, without discussion when the House was as “disorderly" as it was on Friday.

The March 13 exercise lasted just 30 minutes and allowed the government to draw Rs 80,000 crore from the Consolidated Fund of India (Rs 57 lakh crore), the government’s total revenue. It's not a rosy situation for a country like India which takes pride in its democracy to see a key legislation like the finance bill (Union Budget) being passed by Parliament without any discussion.

This hasn't happened for the first time and there's no guarantee that it won't happen again. On the contrary, the unfortunate thing is that it has become a well-established parliamentary practice. The Modi government has done this second time in a row. But the unfortunate aspect is that previous governments too have done so before.

What happened on March 13 belittled Parliament and made a mockery of the taxpayers when the Lok Sabha passed the bill in 30 minutes without debate, funding demands from 99 ministries and departments, including two bills (Finance Bill, 2018, and the Appropriation Bill, 2018) and 218 amendments. The speaker resorted to the frequently used parliamentary procedure “guillotine” which facilitated passage of grants without discussion.

Mahajan was perfectly within her rights as the speaker can apply the guillotine on the last day of the period prescribed for discussions on the demands for grants and conclude discussions on financial proposals within the time specified. After the speaker invokes the guillotine, the House has to mandatorily vote on all outstanding demands for grants without discussion. An important fact in this context is that the guillotine was used to pass all demands only twice before in 18 years.

One should also not forget the fact that this time the demand for grants guillotined without discussion was much higher than in the past because now the railway budget is merged with the general budget.

Most important amendment: Foreign funding to political parties

Of all the 218 amendments in the two money bills, perhaps the most crucial pertains to foreign funding to political parties which will allow them to escape scrutiny with retrospective effect for 42 years. This amendment legalises all foreign funding to political parties over 42 years and insulates the parties from judicial inquiry. No prizes for guessing that the biggest beneficiaries of the retrospective move would be the BJP and the Congress, both of which have been receiving foreign funding.

Incidentally, the Delhi High Court had recently held the Congress and the BJP for receiving foreign funds from two subsidiaries of UK-based company Vedanta.

Does it not show that the two parties, the BJP and the Congress, are hand in gloves? The amendment, approved with retrospective effect (or to be precise, from August 5, 1976), ensures that the Congress quietly looks the other way and doesn't make a song and dance about it.

Significantly, the amendment comes at a time when electoral bonds, announced in last year's Budget, are scheduled to launch on April 1, supposedly to make the present electoral system more transparent.

But what kind of transparency can one expect from electoral bonds wherein donors and political parties are guaranteed anonymity. Yes, there is a cap on the amount the donors can donate - just Rs 2,000. But there is no cap on the number of times this amount of Rs 2,000 can be donated. Thus, the same donor can make repeated donations of Rs 2,000, maybe 2,000 times or even 20,000 times.

Then there is another big concern about the electoral bonds which make them a leaking bucket. Even loss-making companies can be the donors which is a perfect recipe of financial disaster and mismanagement as this would inevitably trigger mushrooming of shell companies.

Some other important demands passed by voice vote on March 13 are as follows:

• A long-term capital gains tax wherein investors will now have to pay 10 per cent tax on profits from shares sold, even if they have had these shares for more than a year.

• Salary hikes for president, governors and MPs.

It's indeed very strange and painful to see that the Opposition to compromise on their most important part of legislative work every year, debate on finance bill, and allowed the government to pass it without a debate. It's beyond comprehension that the Opposition was more keen on discussing the Rs 18,000-crore PNB fraud rather than the Union Budget for the next year which impacts every single citizen of the country.

In doing so, the Opposition has completely abdicated its responsibilities and helped the government in doing whatever it wanted without any discussion or a meaningful debate.

A big reason for the Opposition’s collusion with the government is that these parties too are big gainers in the election year by amending rules for foreign funding.

Also read: Andhra Pradesh special status: Why the BJP couldn't care less about the TDP exit from NDA