Political Diary
New Delhi, 28 February 2009
Death Of Fourteenth
Lok Sabha
MPs REVEL IN
DARKEST CHAPTER
By Poonam I Kaushish
The end was ignominiously quite, without a bang. Bereft of
the acrimony, pandemonium and fist-cuffs which had crippled its life for the
last five years. No guesses, one is talking of the 14th Lok Sabha.
Which will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Marked by a verbal torrent
of puerile discourse, all kinds of chicanery, denigration and trivialization
shamelessly exposing the ugly and raw underbelly of power politics down to the
gutter level. Where our jan sevaks
relegated the House of the People into a slum and emerged as Slumdog
Millionaires! No matter that asli Bharat’s
aam aadmi continues reeling under crippling poverty.
An epitaph of the Fourteenth Lok Sabha would read as the
darkest chapter in India’s
high temple of democracy. In fact, it had many firsts. The Prime Minister was
not the Leader of the House. Five tainted Ministers adorned the Treasury
benches, shrugged off as “compulsions of coalition politics.” The Speaker was
expelled by his Party. Innumerable scams rocked each session every year. With
our Right Honourables busy leading an in-House humla more destructive than the terror strikes from across the
border.
Creating history of sorts, the Prime Minister belonged to
the Rajya Sabha instead of being directly elected by the people to the Lok
Sabha. Leaving the Government with no recourse but to elect the senior-most
Minister as the Leader of the House. A post which in normal course was the PM’s
by virtue of his numero uno status.
Sadly, Manmohan Singh should have done an Indira Gandhi. On being made elected
the PM she resigned from the Rajya Sabha
and got elected to the Lok Sabha as she felt that the Prime Minister should
represent the will of the people which was reflected in the House of the
People.
Leading to another unprecedented situation. When the Left
parties moved a privilege motion against the PM in the Lok Sabha for his
failure to report to the House before operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal
as promised by him, the Speaker rejected the motion by stating that the
privilege issue could be raised only in the Rajya Sabha as the PM was a member
there.
Unforgettable too is that controversy dodged the Speaker’s
office which was marked by extreme bitterness vis-à-vis Somnath Chatterjee’s
ties with his Party last year and with the main Opposition Party, BJP. While
the CPM expelled Somnath for defying its diktat and resign as Speaker on the
confidence motion moved by PM on the Indo-US nuclear deal. The BJP accused
Somnath of ‘partisanship’ and boycotted him for a day. Briefly, it even
seriously contemplated moving a no confidence motion against him.
Worse, the five years were marked by increased confrontation
between the Treasury and the Opposition benches. There was no day when the Lok
Sabha did not witness a tug-of-war on anything and everything. The House was
repeatedly adjourned. Be it for a few hours if not the entire day due to MPs
displaying their might by rushing into the well of the House, hustling and
muscling the Speaker et al.
Not only that. Crucial legislations were rushed through in
the House. Who can forget the last session where 18 important bills were passed
in a short span of 15 minutes without any consideration. Importantly, on the
last day of the 14th Lok Sabha as many as 34 Bills lapsed with the
fate of another 46 now resting with the next Government.
Sadly, this high volume of unfinished legislative agenda
tells the story of a fractured House, the inability of the Government to engage
the Opposition and its ineptitude in building a consensus. There was total lack
of communication and coordination between the two sides which seemed to have become
the hallmark of the 14th Lok Sabha.
Instead of reaching out, the Government sought ways to ram through
legislations. And when there was consensus, it wasn’t built upon.
The Government suffered reverses on the Prevention of
Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2008. It rushed the Bill through the Lok Sabha,
but was unable to get it passed in the Rajya Sabha. Also, it was forced to
withdraw the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation in Posts and
Services) Bill, 2008 (passed by the Rajya Sabha in December last) as sections
within the UPA opposed it.
Ditto the case with the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill,
2007, and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007 which was passed by
the House of the People but was stalled by the BJP and Left in the Rajya Sabha.
Often the Government piloted legislations just to earn political brownie points
without intending to see these through to a logical end. The Right of Children
to Free and Compulsory Education Bill a case in point. A situation that does
not augur well for a Parliamentary democracy.
More. The five years of the Lok Sabha functioning often
underscored the fragility of the UPA Government. In 2005, the Government talked
of amending the Forward Contract Regulation Act but introduced the Bill only in
March 2008 in the Lok Sabha. Only to abandon it later thanks to the Left’s
strong opposition and sky rocketing inflation.
But what should worry each Party was the marked decrease in
the numbers of days on which the two House of Parliament met. Scandalously, the
House hit an all-time low when the Lok Sabha functioned only for 32 days. Notwithstanding
the political consensus that Parliament should meet for a minimum of 100 days
in a year. In 2007 it had fared better
when it met for 66 days. But all washed away by the shortest ever monsoon session
of barely 17 days with the longest daily adjournments and hardly any work, a
mere 64 hours.
Testimony of this continuing sharp decline was when the
monsoon session in July-August 2008 was an on-going session till December. When
asked why the monsoon session was not adjourned and what the December session
should be called, the Parliamentary Minister replied: “Say anything you like”.
Typical, the Government and Opposition accused each other for “killing”
Parliament.
Most distressing was that our politico-criminals shamelessly
flashed their “bullet-proof” MP status. Indeed, the various scams ---- cash-for-questions
hustling, cash-for-vote scandal and the Office of Profit swindle proved that money hai to power hai. Brushed aside as
perks of office. Never mind that at the end of the day the temple of democracy
was trampled and trashed. What mattered was victory at all cost. Certainly, the
aam aadmi had not voted for this.
This apart, despite the hype surrounding Parliament’s babalog, the ‘Gen Next’ failed to make
an impact. According to Parliamentary Research Service statistics their
performance in terms of attendance and participation in the proceedings were
abysmal. Though they accounted for 11% of the Lok Sabha seats their
participation in the proceedings was only around 7%. On an average, each baba participated in 3, while a 56-70 years MP partook in 5 debates
. So much for inducting fresh faces!
One can go on about the death of Parliamentary democracy
represented in the Lok Sabha. That we are slowly heading towards disaster is
obvious. What troubles one is that it does not strike a chord among our MPs.
Who largely continue to drift along smugly without thinking of how they have
mauled the House and continue to do so. Most distressing is that there is no
sense of outrage or shame. Even as the peoples’ disillusionment and revulsion
with our jan sevaks grows.
Not many seem to understand the diabolical and dangerous
dimensions of making the Lok Sabha insignificant. It needs to be remembered
that it represents the people of India, who count upon it to function as the
sovereign watchdog of their interest. Constitutionally, the Executive is
responsible and accountable to Parliament every second of the day. Its survival
depends on its enjoying the confidence of the Lok Sabha.
As our political parties continue in their jor-tor of regaining power in the coming
elections, all eyes are on the 15th Lok Sabha. What will its contours be? What
calibre of MPs? Clearly, the time has come to seriously rectify the flaws in
our system and urgently overhaul the functioning of Parliament. If necessary,
rules should be drastically changed to put it back on the rails. Else, we could
lose everything that took over 60 years to build. Or else say goodbye to
democracy! ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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