Does the disruption of Parliament session mean negation of democracy? This question cannot be answered in yes or no but needs to be understood in the light of the background in which the Prime Minister has made his estimation. Who does not know that washing down 13 days of work of the parliamentary session does not only cost heavily to the public exchequer but also deprives the nation of important and urgent pieces of legislation and debate on crucial issue of national interest. The reason that had dragged the 2010 session to the same fate that has met the present disrupted session is the same, viz. scams and corruption involving ministers and political leaders in or out of power. In both cases, initial accusation did not come from the opposition in the Parliament but from the constitutionally accredited institutions of the State, namely the CAG. The manner in which CAG report was brought to the public domain cannot be justified as the right approach to the situation. Casting aspersions on the CAG before the report was discussed, and challenging its authority and jurisdiction, even in mild words, is not acceptable if we want democratic dispensation to flower in this country. The CAG deserved to be shown due respect for whatever it reported because it was functioning under the mandate of the constitution. The weight of the argument that the opposition should have allowed the Government clarify its position on the report before demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister would have really become meaningful if the Government had from the very first day given the report its due and not tried to defend its position through non-starter arguments.
Having said that, we feel the argument of the opposition that disruption of parliamentary session in 2010 had brought positive result of Information Ministry being dealt a shaking is not tenable. The reason is that repetition of this practice in the current session shows the trend of disrupting parliamentary sessions aimed at bringing down the Government is going to become a regular feature of our democratic dispensation. This is unacceptable and is truly negation of democracy.
Closing down a parliamentary session sine die or staging walk outs and protests that disrupt the business of the house are not to be taken as negation of democracy. This is part of parliamentary practice. Governments are seldom prepared to accept their mistakes and mismanagement of state affairs. They try to find excuses and pretexts to defend their stand. But the opposition has to act like a watchman and disallow the Government if it tries to put its wrong doings under wrap. On the face of it, the alleged coal scam highlighted in CAG Report could have been handled without fuss and without circumventing propriety.
All stakeholders have to realise that our country is in the process of making; it is a developing country. At the same time, it is a democratic country. Democracy, by the very nature of its functioning, is slow and tardy. No over- night miracles have to be expected from democratic dispensation. It is a process of learning by error. We cannot ask for the head of the Government for any or every petty default. The opposition was not at all justified to have zeroed in on one demand viz. the ouster of the Prime Minister. It did not leave good taste in the mouth. Its incessant demand of dismissal of the Prime Minister greatly trivialized the status of the prime minister of India. That should not have happened. The Prime Minister is right in appealing to the people at large to decide whether the Parliament should or should not be allowed to conduct its business in a normal fashion. He is within his right to make an appeal to the masses of people of this country because he derives his strength from them. The second disruption of the session of the Parliament in two years without conducting normal business should be a lesson to the ruling party as well as the opposition that they have to shun their stereotypes and work in the interests of this nation. Why shield the offenders of public trust and why assume the air of infallibility? As long as we are human beings we are fallible but that does not mean that we have to be incorrigible. Our democracy will have to see many ups and downs still because the process of evolution of democracy is continuous one. Political parties, whether in power or in opposition, have to understand and observe the limitation imposed on them by the constitution.
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