Lok Sabha or Mock Sabha

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