It was a disgraceful day in the Monsoon Session of 2013, when the speaker
of the Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari, disillusioned by the routine disruptions in
the Parliament, referred the honourable members of Parliament as a Federation
of Anarchists.
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Pride of India |
During the recent times, members on both sides of political divide
have torn papers, scuffled, agitated by using unparliamentary language, shouted
slogans and caused all sort of possible disruptions in the working of the
Parliament. The statistics of the lost working hours of the Parliament is
itself a testimony to the pandemonium created by our elected representatives
thereby jeopardising not only the decorum of the House but also its culture.
Since 2010 winter session, Rajya Sabha alone has lost 520 working hours and
each working hour lost costs about 25 lakhs. In this Monsoon session of the Lok
Sabha alone lost 88% of its available sitting time to adjournments due to
disruptions. If we compare to the First
Lok Sabha, which met for an average of 127 days in the 1950s and Rajya Sabha for 93 days in
2012 it decreased to 70 days for both Houses. The 1st Lok Sabha passed an
average of 72 Bills each year while this has decreased to 40 Bills a year in
the 15th present Lok Sabha. The Parliament has become a stage for our
elected representatives to act to their discretion; regardless of the
Parliamentary ethics. This blatant misuse of the taxpayers’ money has not only
enraged the citizens but has also opened a Pandora’s Box raising doubts about
the efficiency of Parliamentary democracy in India.
Though the
frequency of hooliganism has increased exponentially over time, the honourable
Members of Parliament were outraged by the use of the term ‘anarchists’ used by
the speaker of Upper House. They termed it as unparliamentary and a phrase that
was uncalled for. Now the question arises what constitutes unparliamentary
language and who adjudicates it? The Unparliamentary Expressions, a book of 900
pages is published by the Lok Sabha Secretariat and held as a reference. The
list contains several words and expressions that are considered profane and
disrespectful in the Legislative Assembly. For example words like bluffing, bribe, double
minded and corrupt cannot be used for a Member of Parliament. And
while there are nearly 40 members from the communist parties in the two Houses,
the word "communist" is unparliamentary, going by the book. But if such innocuous words form the definition of
unparliamentary language, then shouldn’t disrupting the Parliament be declared
unparliamentary as well?
The discussions on various
amendments, new Bills, passing of new and required legislations all get stalled
due to the frequent adjournments in the Parliament. As a result of which most
of the analysis and development have to happen in the standing committees. This
expunges the opportunities for genuine and open dialog between the opposition
and ruling alliances. This was not how working of the Parliament was envisaged
by our founding fathers.
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Scuffling Parliamentarians |
This barbarian behavior
on part of the Honourable Members of Parliament has raised questions on the honour and the work ethics of the Parliamentarians. Surely wilfully disrupting the law making body of the country to gain political and electoral mileage cannot be exonerated. Some blame competitive politics, while some condemn conflicting political interests (even within the same parties or alliances) to have increased the frequency of disruptions. By displaying such hooliganism, the Members of Parliament have raised serious questions on their credibility. They have formed an antagonistic perception in minds of the common man which will be difficult to obliterate.
This was one side of the story. However
we must also dwell upon the fact that Parliament is the most substantial forum
for public discourse with regard to representation in India. Its members are
the elected representatives by the citizens of India. They represent the voice
of India so varying emotions like happiness, anger, agony, pride, anguish,
delirium, elation, prosperity are bound to be reflected in their words,
expressions, emotions and body language. Having said that it is also the prerogative of
the ruling alliance to ensure, that the Parliament from being the biggest
Panchayat in the country, does not become the largest Akhada (wresting arena).
Though we borrow our legislative
model from the Westminster model, the readers will be shocked to know that the
British Parliament has never been adjourned due to disruptions in the last 370
years. This fact should not only be a source of inspiration for our honourable
legislators but should also serve as a wakeup call on their habit of
procrastinating and disrupting passing of Bills in the Parliament.
Punitive measures must be taken
for repeated offenders because deferring the Parliament is not only the
betrayal of Democracy but also beguiles the trust of voters.
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