By Bir Devinder Singh
It’s a matter of deep commiseration that India’s Parliament adjourned sine die without transacting any legislative business in its monsoon session. The way things took ugly turn in the Monsoon session of the parliament, that resulted in complete washout of the monsoon session, which is certainly not a happy situation for the Nation; sworn in to parliamentary democracy.
It’s not a long ago when Mr. Arun Jaitly then leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha justifying the logjam of Parliament defined ‘unparliamentarily raucous’ a parliamentary strategy to prove a point of view. Now it was on the same pattern UPA led by Congress put the NDA on the mat. Nothing worst can happen to the system of Parliamentary democracy if the parliamentarians resolve to use logjam of Parliament with persistent disruptions, as a parliamentary strategy. Although it’s the fundamental duty of the incumbent government to ensure the peaceful conduct of Parliamentary proceedings, but the opposition could also not shy away of its responsibility; in creating atmosphere, conducive for meaningful Parliamentary debates. It essentially fall back upon all political parties represented in Parliament, to ensure functional Parliament. The refashioned model of parliamentary democracy, which is currently on display, demonstrates the inability of our parliamentarians to conduct scholarly debates with substance and elucidations.
What message our members of parliament tends to give the World over, if session after sessions is washed-out in the unprecedented hullabaloo. After all, all members of Parliament are accountable to the constitution of India and well defined parliamentary practice and procedures, if not to the people of India. Members of Parliament must bear in mind that their every single moment of time, whether used or disused is billed to the public exchequer. One wonders as to why the highly cherished parliamentary traditions, set by our great leaders are sagging by each passing day. Paradoxically, who freed our members of Parliament, from the burden of their day-to-day responsibilities in terms of their duties towards the functions of the Parliament, when in session? India has inherited the Westminster model of Governance and Parliamentary Democracy from Britain; which in practice is empty of value based traditions, parliamentary ethics and political morality.
Unfortunately our parliamentarians are not aware of the considerable amount of agonized tension; every awakened Indian suffers because of the ludicrous behavior of our members of parliament and members of the State legislative Assemblies, every day. Prior to the advent of the electronic media, general public had no access to the visuals of the proceedings of the Parliament. Now they evaluate the performance of all parties and each member with great alacrity and precision. The dysfunctional parliament of world’s largest Parliamentary democracy does not augur well among the community of Nations. Both the main stream National political parties could not be absolved of the responsibility of defiling the global protuberance of India, at a time when India is rated, as one of the fast growing economies of the World.
To my mind, even the anomalous misappropriation of the time of the House is sinful and should be treated as perjury committed against the Nation. It is contemptuous violation of oath, every Member of Parliament takes while becoming the member of the either ‘House’ of the Parliament. Probity in Public life and appropriateness of the conduct of the ministers must be the first and foremost worry and should be the basic hypothesis defining the affirmation of faith in the dignity of the Nation, that must not be negotiable under any set of circumstances. The rising tide of the Government business in Parliament necessitates the Narinder Modi government to be more resilient and soft while dealing with the demands of the opposition. After all the current opposition in the House i.e. the congress has demanded the same what BJP demanded while in opposition? If they found greater rationale in demanding the resignations of the then UPA Ministers why the NDA now became so economical and stiff in conceding the similar demand of the Congress party? Ms. Shushma Sawraj External Affairs Minister still has to convince the Nation as to why she selectively allowed her emotions to exercise her power on the basis of ‘humanitarian concern’ for a fugitive, absconding to face the law of India.
Why Ms Shushma Sawraj chose to ignore all the well established, standard norms and procedure, while approaching the British Authority ‘Out of the box’ ill caring the proceedings in the court of law for the restoration of the Indian passport to Mr. Lalit Modi ? Paradoxically the Ministry of External affairs was the defendant in this case. Why she deliberately avoided consulting Indian High Commission in London for the issuance of travel documents to MR. Lalit Modi ?
These are certain pertinent questions where Ms. Shushma Sawraj has failed miserably to respond to, point by point despite her two interventions in the Lok Sabha. Issue of probity and conflict of interest was not addressed in a forthright manner with honesty, the way it was expected in the temple of Democracy. Her intervention was nothing but a hogwash; on flimsy grounds and loud arguments and attacking Late Rajiv Gandhi posthumously on the issues which have been amply debated in Parliament
NDA being the ruling party must volunteer and show magnanimity and walk extra mile to bring opposition on a debating table to avoid future logjam of the Parliament. India’s sovereign Parliament should not be seen as disused parliamentary institution in the light of the washed away monsoon session, due to logjam. Such a perverse form of persistent Parliamentary Paralysis would weaken the faith of the Indian citizens in the form of the Parliamentary democracy. It’s high time for our parliamentarians to ponder over the issue and see reason; their despicable conduct proving the Indian Parliament nonfunctional, may force the countrymen and women to look for other options beyond the Parliamentary democracy.
Bir Devinder Singh is former Deputy Speaker, Punjab and best Parliamentarian of Punjab
E-mail : birdevinders@gmail.com