The Goa government has played a fast one on Goans who were looking anxiously for a resolution on Goa land laws. The assurance given to the fasting RGP MLA Viresh Borkar by the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the Speaker Ganesh Gaonkar, that Sec 39A of the TCP would be discussed in the house was clearly dishonoured. It is an extremely serious aberration of parliamentary system. The curtailment of the Goa budget session is not seen with the seriousness the situation warrants, probably because the move to curtail the house arose from a point of order raised by a opposition member with the media ignoring the seriousness.
Goans were anxiously waiting for a debate on Goa’s land laws and in particular a discussion on Sec 39A of the Goa Town and Country Planning act which permits indiscriminate and arbitrary change of zones. Sec 39A has facilitated destruction of hills slopes, filling of low-lying lands and conversion of orchard area to help the real estate sector fuelled by demand for apartments and villas for use as second homes, holiday homes, home stays and bed & breakfast apartments. The Enough is Enough Movement has lit the spark towards an all-Goa movement to save what is left of Goa.
The Model Code of Conduct applicable to South Goa due to the Ponda bye election could never have been used as an excuse to cut short the budget session. The Model Code of Conduct which has no statutory backing but a set of guidelines in the nature of pious obligations for the parties, candidates and party in power. The Election Commission of India is enjoined with the responsibility to conduct free and fair elections but has no supervisory control over any legislature or executive. All that is expected from the ‘party in power’ was that its ministers were not expected to give such assurances that would disturb the level playing field in Ponda. But by cutting short the budget session the government has made a fool of all Goans.
At a time when legislatures of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tripura and Nagaland are in session, despite there being bye-elections, the Goa government has played a joke on Goans who were awaiting the ruling party’s stand on Sec 39A of the TCP Act. The ruling party despite having a huge majority was always uncomfortable in the house. The ministers were not in a position to face the motley group of ‘disunited’ seven and would take any opportunity to shut down the house and what an opportunity when a leading member of the opposition raises a point of order on the model code of conduct.
Though there is no provision in the constitution which fixes the parliamentary calendar but as a convention there are three sessions the budget session, the monsoon session and the winter session. The constitution provides for a provision that the legislature must meet at least once in six months. Even while debating the constitution, Dr Ambedkar claimed that ‘…. I do not think any executive would hereafter be capable of showing this kind of callous conduct towards the legislature’. A leading member of the constituent assembly K.T. Shah opined that parliament should sit throughout the year with breaks. That would have to apply to state legislature also. However, that suggestion were not accepted.
The parliament not having a fixed a parliamentary calendar has led to certain aberrations. A winter session of the parliament was delayed due to Gujarat elections in 2017. During UPA days in 2011 all political parties agreed to cut short the budget session so that they could campaign for Vidhan Sabha elections in five states. The 2026 Goa assembly curtailment is yet another aberration. These cases should never be treated as precedents but aberrations of the parliamentary system.
Over a period of time there is decline in the sittings of parliament and states legislatures. In the first 20 years, the parliament was meeting on an average of 120 days which is now getting reduced to ridiculously low number of days. Somehow the governments are in favour of doing away with long legislative sessions and short sessions are called only to meet the constitutional requirement of houses meeting every six months as the governments act more arbitrarily and the space for debate and discussion is shrinking, it is imperative that the number of days in a year must be pegged to the same 100-120 days with at least four sessions.
