Brij Bhardwaj
The Monsoon session of the parliament has been a complete wash out with members using their lung power to out shout each other instead of debating the serious issues facing the nation. There was no discussion on economic slow down, no debate on drought affecting lakhs in some states. Parliament also did not take up serious Legislative business pending before it and the business transacted was limited to passing some non-controversial bills without any debate or discussion.
The issue before the country is what message is being sent to the nation by political parties by making Parliament non-functional. Will it not justify the demand for judiciary to become more active by taking up powers which rightly belongs to the elected representatives or make civil society activists to occupy the space vacated by politicians because they are unable to discharge their primary duty of making laws to govern the nation.
A veteran member of the parliament, Dr Karan Singh stated in a debate on T.V channel that the Parliamentary system will be seriously undermined if disruption becomes a legitimate weapon in Parliament functioning as is being advocated by main group in opposition that is BJP. According to Lord Meganath Desai, Indian Parliament has become non-functional because there are no debates and all major issues are decided by top leadership while back benchers are denied any role either in debates or decision making.
The manner in which major political parties have interrupted proceedings of the Parliament, the time devoted to serious debates or proper discussion on important legislations has become a big casualty. The number of sittings of Parliament have been increasingly curtailed and the result is that important items like budget are not subjected to the Parliamentary scrutiny. The result is that major departments which spend hundreds of crores on behalf of the Government escape public scrutiny.
Question hour, zero hour which in the past provided rare insights into the working of the Government are often disturbed or yield little information because members fail to do their home work to probe the working or elicit information from the Government. In the early days the number of opposition members could be counted on finger tips but by their ability to probe and research they would often put the Government on the mat. One can not help but recall the contribution of members like by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Mr Madhu Limaye, Dr Shayama Prasad Mukerjee and Mr Feroz Gandhi, husband of Mrs Indira gandhi.
Each of them relied on ability to probe and present facts which forced the Government to sit up and take notice. Dr Lohia’s famous speech that over one third of the country lived in poverty earning three annas a day gave many sleepness nights to the Government in power. Mr Feroz Gandhi was a member of the ruling party but he too put the Government on mat by pointing out how official funds were used to help an public industrialist. This forced the resignation of Finance Minister T.T Krishnamachari. Many more such instances can be quoted to illustrate the point that one can get results in Parliament through use of brain power. The question is why the members in opposition as well as the Government are making the institution ineffective and subject of ridicule. Why opposition is not able to wait for elections to be held every five years to oust the ruling party. What we are witnessing is that from day one efforts are set into motion to unseat the party in power and effort is to achieve the same through disruption instead of making a logical case.
The worst part of the crisis is that even institutions like armed forces or civil officials like senior members heading statutory bodies like Election Commission or Comptroller and Auditor General are getting involved in controversies. Many of them after retirement have joined political parties or become politically active raising doubts about their role while in service. Under the circumstances serious worry is that the dividing line between various authorities like judiciary, executives, bureaucracy are getting blurred.
If one were to look deeply one finds that capital cronyism is common both in states and at Center basically because fighting elections has become very expensive. No political consensus has emerged to check the rising cost of polls or provide state funding. If the present trend continues Indian democracy will be under serious threat. What has been built and nursed over half a century will be lost. A democracy and Parliamentary system can function if all sides play by rules. The members defying the chair should be punished or suspended failing which disruption will rule as they make headlines instead of serious debates.
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