The Monsoon Session of Parliament was a washout with little or no legislative business transacted. Worse, at least one important Bill, on sexual harassment in the workplace, was introduced in the Lok Sabha and deemed to have been passed (by a voice vote, an impossibility in the din raised by the Opposition) without even a word being spoken on the proposed law’s clauses by our national law-makers. It just goes to show how seriously our MPs take the issue of sexual harassment of women. Had it not been so, they would have disallowed its passage without a full debate.

The chattering classes, which rarely vote in elections and are blissfully ignorant of how Parliament (or any other institution) functions in this country, have been prompt in blaming the Opposition, namely the BJP, for the stalemate that came to dominate the Monsoon Session just as a standoff between the Congress and the BJP had killed the Winter Session last year. But it would be utterly foolish to blame the Opposition alone – beyond a point the façade of debate, discussion and deliberation serves nobody’s interest, least of all Parliament’s.