Winter Session was the most disrupted parliament session ever, thanks to demonetisation

Post demonetisation, this Winter Session has been the worst in terms of disruptions witnessed in recent times as the Parliament was all caught up while struggling to find a balance that will enable transaction of work.

The ruling and the opposition acted like they were on a war and now both of them are waiting for the General Budget on February 1st.

Rahul Gandhi recently attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of personal corruption. This is likely to add fuel to the fire which turned the Winter Session as one of the least productive period in Parliament's recent history.

The working between Modi and the opposition wasn’t ever proper, but demonetisation widened the gap.

Continued disruptions saw the Prime Minister not speaking a single word on the issue either in the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha amid conflicting claims from rival sides. Modi and BJP time and again complained that the Prime Minister was not being allowed to speak while the Opposition hit back charging him with running away from debate in order to avoid inconvenient questions.

The refrain of the Prime Minister's detractors was that he had all the time to address a pop concert but no time for Parliament. Opposition also alleged that the ruling side deliberately created an uproar on days when Rahul Gandhi planned to target the government, especially Modi.

Now plans are afoot to advance the Budget Session and present the Union Budget 2017-18 on February 1, dispensing with the age-old practice of carrying out the exercise on February 28.

With the chill setting in government-Opposition ties, the last session of Parliament in the year hardly saw any legislative action except for the passage of the Rights of Persons with Disability Bill by both the Houses.

Significantly, this legislation was cleared after a brief debate with a rare bonhomie, which was missing from the entire Winter Session.

The Budget Session also saw the Opposition and treasury benches giving credit to each other for introducing and piloting the Real Estate Bill.

The government changed its chief floor manager by bringing in Ananth Kumar as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister ahead of the Monsoon Session in place of M. Venkaiah Naidu.

2016 was, however, more productive than 2015 which had seen persistent disruptions during two sessions over a host of issues including Lalit Modi and Vyapam scam.