Disclaimer: This piece is intended merely for discussion, and not at all casts aspersions on temple of largest democracy of the world.
INDIAN Parliament has seen many political weathers to wilt to current gust of doggedness.
Demography of India is transforming each day. India is getting younger. The young India is both a boon and bane in measures not easy to quantify. The boon obviously is in demographic dividend for economy. None talk about the other side of the story for want of an audience.
The most telling disability of young India is that its sense of history is much narrow. The time span of historical awareness is squeezing with each passing day. And to expect this growing class to pay attention to context and thereby historical background would be to expect too much.
That the Congress and its tiny lot of camp followers have enforced a lock-down on Rajya Sabha, because the BJP when in Opposition had done the same stand having become irrelevant by the passage of time. And, hence, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has growing lot of admirers among the youth.
Incidentally, political class invariably is blessed with short memory and any inconvenient pass events get erased with ease. Congress president Sonia Gandhi believes PM Narendra Modi is replicating Gujrat model in Parliament. She claimed Modi used to get Congress MLAs suspended from Gujrat Assembly without fail during each session.
But Gandhi would surely not mention that the UPA government just two years ago had got passed State Reorganisation Bill to create the state of Telangana in not so glorious manner. Scores of MPs hailing from united Andhra Pradesh were suspended for days, for having camped in the well of the House and having held placards aloft against division of the state. The matter had come to such an extent that a Congress MP had pressed canister to spray pepper right in the well of the Lok Sabha and had to be overpowered after enough fisticuffs. That he endangered the health of many MPs, journalists and common men and women in the public gallery predictably did not invite attention of the presiding officers of the Parliament.
Gandhi could equally consult her colleague Sheila Dikshit and enlighten herself how she had perfected the art of "naming and suspending" Opposition MLAs in Delhi Assembly during her over 15 years of rule.
DOGGEDNESS of both Congress and BJP is worrisome. The Congress is surely looking to find the path to revive the party from the newly found lung power in logjam of Parliament. The BJP is on an extended hangover of having been served strongly intoxicating electoral victory a year ago much beyond their expectation. The BJP arguably believes the time has come to roll over the Congress. If the Congress is served a telling fatal blow, the BJP will always be the first natural choice of people for power in New Delhi.
If not for politically motivated doggedness of the Congress, the Opposition could have explored the option for a censure motion in both the Houses of the Parliament against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The Opposition is in majority in Rajya Sabha and could have the desired results if its unity is real.
BEYOND the explicitly seen reasons for lock-down in Rajya Sabha (Lok Sabha is functioning), there are larger issues. Firstly, the issue of democracy in the real sense. The weapon of whip given to political parties by late Rajiv Gandhi through the anti-defection law has made democracy hypocritical. The MPs are largely herds swayed by the direction of the whip.
Secondly, the issue whether the members of Parliament are lawmakers in the real sense is discussed in hushed voices in the corridors of the temple of democracy. How many laws have been enacted through the initiatives of the MPs and their discussions in both the Houses of Parliament? Aren't the MPs mere rubber stamps to the legislative bills drafted by the babus?
Thirdly, do both the Houses of Parliament really make the government accountable. An illustration may answer this question. In the ongoing Monsoon session, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan indicated in Lok Sabha during Question Hour, that the government would not prefer to transfer cash into accounts of beneficiaries of the food subsidy. "The government spends Rs 1.31 lakh crore under food subsidy each year. Though we've launched DBT (Direct benefit transfer) in Pudduchery, Chandigarh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli, there're issues like (a) will people really buy foodgrains and if yes then of what quality; (b) what will happen to so many PDS shops and dealers; (c) what will happen to godowns built so far; (d) what if even 10 per cent of beneficiaries miss out from DBT for any reasons," said Paswan.
No MPs present contested Paswan's concerns. All issues raised by Paswan are equally applicable for DBT for LPG subsidy. Tax payers' money can surely not be used to justify the need of PDS shops, dealers and godowns. And, lastly, the quality of grains given by PDS shops makes Paswan's another worry laughable.
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| Excerpt from my book -- The enabler Narendra Modi. |
And, most importantly, the quality of debate in both the Houses of Parliament tell a much larger story. A comparison between the 15th and 16th Lok Sabha in the context of quality of debates could make for an exciting research. That Nishikant Dubey from the BJP and Veerappa Moily from the Congress are lead speakers on economy in the current Lok Sabha tell the story much evidently.
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