Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has criticised the opposition for disrupting parliament and acting as a hindrance in the passing of crucial bills.

“If our legislators cannot meet for discussion on crucial bills, there is certainly something wrong,” Sen told reporters at a media briefing in the national capital on Monday.

Sen was referring to the continued disruptions of parliament in the current budget session over coal blocks allocation scam and the government’s role in interfering with the CBI’s status report on the probe.

The disruptions have meant that important bills — like food security and grievance redress — have not been introduced.

“There is an important case for introducing bills like the food security bill. (But) if the opposition thinks it has more valid arguments for not introducing these bills, then they (parties) should present those arguments,” said the author of ‘The Argumentative Indian’, among other notable books.

Discussions and deliberations, Sen said, are the traditions of democracy: “Not allowing arguments is tantamount to killing democracy.” Not allowing parliament to function is not a breakdown of democracy but a failure to practice democracy with adequate skills, he explained.

Arguing for immediate discussion and passing of the bills, especially the food security bills, Sen said such laws impact lives of millions and it was important to confront the government and opposition with the numbers (of those who are deprived). 

According to a PRS Legislative Research, a Delhi-based think tank, the current Lok Sabha has seen frequent disruptions on a number of issues. And as a result about third of the scheduled time has been lost.

“The current Lok Sabha has seen disruptions on a range of issues with large parts of sessions lost to demand for JPC (joint parliamentary committee) on telecom spectrum allocation (winter session 2010), demand for resignation of PM for coalgate (monsoon 2013, and again budget 2013). As a result about one-third of the scheduled time has been lost,” said a press note from PRS.