Murder of democracy

by abhay mokashi

Democracy has been murdered in the Indian Parliament, not just by the ruling dictatorial Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but also by the opposition parties.

There is no doubt that time and again the BJP has bulldozed parliament procedures and norms by refusing to have debates and votes on a variety of issues over the last few years. The issues range from the farm laws to spying on some people in the country using the Israeli military spyware Pegasus, along with several other issues of public concern.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been visiting the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on casual basis. As the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi often criticised the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he was a mute Prime Minister; he used to call the Prime Minister mauni baba. Manmohan Singh is a man of few words, but his words are full of wisdom, unlike Modi who cannot keep his mouth shut and when he speaks he often exposes his poor knowledge of history, science, mathematics and logic, just to name a few. As the Prime Minister, he should have spoken on the Pegasus issue in the Parliament.

Singh may not have spoken much, but his presence in both the Houses of the Parliament as the Prime Minister cannot be matched by Modi. President Barack Obama has once said, “When Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh speaks, the world listens.” When Modi speaks, his blind followers listen.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who is always criticised by Modi, made it a point to listen to those parliamentarians, who were most critical of him. Modi likes only adulation and that comes in plenty from his blind followers and the sycophants in the party. He cannot stand criticism and must be keeping away from the sessions, so that criticism does not fall on his ears. By staying away from the Parliament, he is insulting democracy.

Modi and his party do not agree to setting up of Joint Parliamentary Committees on several issues. Joint Parliamentary Committees help members of parliament to go to the depth of any issue, hence Modi and his government does not allow that.

The Modi government has pushed Bills in the House without discussion on them, which is an anti-democracy move.

The Opposition has the right to protest in the House, which may lead to disruption of the proceedings, but the protests need to be dignified. The standing on the tables by some of the members of the Rajya Sabha has to be condemned. They have tarnished the image of the Rajya Sabha. But the failure of the government to allow discussions cannot be condoned.

Rajya Sabha Chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu became emotional in the House, over the incidence, on the last day of the current session. He stated that he spent a sleepless night because of the scene in the Rajya Sabha. It is good that he is pained at the behaviour of the members of the opposition. While doing so, he should have lost sleep because of the behaviour of the ruling party too. He should have lost sleep for being helpless in running the House the way it should have been.

Pratap Singh Bajwa, who flung the Rule Book at the Chair, has clarified that he did so after the House was adjourned and the Chair was unoccupied. His behaviour may still be debatable, but that was done to show that the Rule Book was not being followed in the August House. Naidu failed to direct the government to come out with a statement on the Pegasus issue and to hold a discussion on it. Naidu neither used his powers nor lived-up to the role of the presiding official. The same is the case with Om Birla, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He too failed to give proper directions to the government.

Have Naidu and Birla forgotten how the BJP has interrupted the proceedings of the parliament when it was in the opposition? If the behaviour of today’s opposition is to be condemned, the behaviour of the BJP when it was in the opposition is equally condemnable. All political parties need to do a rethink on their behaviour in the parliament.

It will help the two presiding officials to study the role played by some of their illustrious predecessors, though it will not be possible for them to come anywhere close to the stature of Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar or Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, just to name two. The problem is that Naidu and Birla still thinking they are with the BJP.