The Winter Session of Parliament, scheduled to be held from December 1 to 19, will be one of the shortest in recent history, barring Covid times when sessions were drastically curtailed. Normally the year’s last session of the legislature lasts over a month, ending just before Christmas, but in 2025, it will witness only 15 sittings, as there are at least four holidays in between. Naturally, this has incensed the Opposition, which sees in the brevity of the winter session a government pattern of weakening Parliament. Slamming the ‘unusually delayed and truncated’ session, the Opposition has accused the government of running away from debate and discussion. Recent Parliament sittings have been stormy, marked by disruptions and adjournments, with the Opposition benches charging the government with failing to heed their demands for discussion on various subjects of national importance. Bills have been rushed through without adequate debate and scrutiny. Fireworks are expected in the coming session too, especially over the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls launched by the Election Commission on November 4 that is being violently opposed by states, such as West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. In the monsoon session too, Parliament was washed out for several days over the presiding officers’ refusal to allow discussion on the Bihar SIR. The ‘vote theft’ allegations recently levelled by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, regarding the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections, are also likely to figure prominently in the Opposition agenda for the winter session. US President Donald Trump’s constant reiteration of his role in brokering an Indo-Pak ceasefire after Operation Sindoor and the Prime Minister’s alleged silence on the issue, as well as India’s relationship with China, are among the Opposition’s talking points.
This session will also mark the debut of Vice President CP Radhakrishnan as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. How he conducts proceedings will be closely watched by the Opposition and Treasury benches. His predecessor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned abruptly as soon as the monsoon session began, had a rocky relationship with the Opposition, who had even contemplated moving an impeachment motion against him. The winter session will be held about a fortnight after the Bihar election results are declared, and, no doubt, the poll verdict will have a bearing on the proceedings. Some important bills that are likely to be taken up are the J&K Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, which proposes removal of top government functionaries under arrest for 30 days or more. Whether or not the government is suffering from ‘Parliament-ophobia’, as Trinamul Congress leader Derek O’Brien has stated, the winter session, however brief, promises to be full of sound and fury.
