It is jamboree time again ! The monsoon session of
parliament is approaching and the
Congress has already found a reason for
obstructing the proceedings.
These days the MP’s are as meticulous in
planning the obstruction of work as they ought to be in setting
their legislative agenda.. But
then parliamentarians seem to have forgotten
what their legitimate duties are.
It seems as if the ruling parties and the opposition,whoever
they are, share the same “Users’ Manual” to educate themselves on how to use their
parliamentary status. This book is not the one officially prescribed and but what is followed as a matter of
traditional practice over recent years. years. Many of the MP’s do not even
seem to know of any other code. They assume that they are elected to rise on cue and march to the well of the house
and loudly shout out the slogans
from lists specially designed for different occasions.
It is sad that we flaunt our credentials as the largest democracy in the world while we continuously flout all the rules that protect this status. The rules of business and procedures of parliament provide for the orderly debate on and settlement of every issue and procedural contingency . However, parties choose to take the agitational route as the penal consequences are never applied..It is not surprising that our practice of democracy has turned that venerated form of government on its head.
Democracy is technically a form of governing on the basis of numbers or majority rule. However, we have recently been seeing that the majority party has no absolute power and is itself influenced by tiny “splinter” parties with single – or low double -digit strength which have the ability to tilt the political balance to their advantage. This hazard has the power to reduce majority parties to minority status and strong and honest administrators into helpless puppets.
As for the presiding officers ,they also appear to have modified their own response in order to maintain peace at any cost –sometimes even peace that follows a spell of shouting, blocking the well and aisles and then a walk-out – all paid for, of course, by a helpless Indian population.. Gone are the days when the Speaker’s peremptory “Order,Order” froze an agitated House into silence. Now it is “Plis,Plis” with folded hands . The penal provisions for repeated disorderliness and disrespect for the presiding officers are laid to rest in the rule book and never invoked. This habitual violation of house rules pervades the Parliament and State legislatures alike.
While all this brazen disregard for the Parliament and the electorate continues there is sometimes a sudden awakening in one MP or another who has been offended by some chance remark of his opposing counterpart. He or she is almost in tears over the insult to the “temple of democracy” , quite unmindful of the fact that the aforesaid temple has already been desecrated time and again by themselves and their ilk.
We who voted to power these “honourable” members
with their insatiable appetite for more
and more perks ,privileges
and VVIP status
shall wait to see what new parliamentary practices will be demonstrated in this coming session.
Legislative responsibilities can wait ,
why worry when there is a
bottomless exchequer and an uncommon unity of minds when it comes to voting for self-protective laws and
generous rewards all round? Will there be a day when any
Presiding Officer will decide to put his/her exalted job on the line and invoke his legitimate powers to
resurrect the faded prestige of
our legislatures ? Will we ever see
again our Parliament and legislatures function in such a way that we could
justifiably claim to be the largest working democracy in the world ?
TC (Kutty) Narayan
Villa 15, Villa del Mar
Sarjapur Rd
Bangalore 560102
Mbl 9886154057
<kuttydignity@gmail.com
TC (Kutty) Narayan
Villa 15, Villa del Mar
Sarjapur Rd
Bangalore 560102
Mbl 9886154057
<kuttydignity@gmail.com
