New Delhi, 11 September 2007
Deadlock Over JPC
CONTEMPT OF
PARLIAMENT
By Poonam I Kaushish
A tragic farce. This adage rang true the whole of last week
as one came face to face with a political pantomime so macabre and lurid that
it could put Lady Macbeth to shame. Wherein the UPA Government’s over-smartness
on the Indo-US nuclear deal seemed to have politically boomeranged. Leading to
the gravest ever assault on the
sovereignty of free India’s
Parliament and raising a big question mark on our parliamentary democracy
itself.
The acts and actors are many. The Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh tells the Left parties to take a hike on the nuclear deal. The Red
brigade sees red, picks up the gauntlet and threatens to withdraw its lifeline
from the UPA Government if it goes ahead with the deal. Faced with the spectre
of a mid-term poll, a shaken Congress placates the Left by setting up a joint committee
to look into the Left’s concerns and “take into account its findings before
operationalising the deal”. Importantly,
all this while Parliament is in session and actively seized of the matter. It
was listed twice for discussion and ‘mysteriously’ changed
A livid BJP-led NDA views this as an insult not only to the
Opposition but also to Parliament and its authority. The Leader of Opposition
LK Advani, demands a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), comprising
representatives of all leading parties, to go into the matter. Asserts he: “The
deal concerns India’s
national interest --- its foreign policy, strategic independence and
territorial integrity ---- and cannot be treated by the Government as a private
matter or a family affair.”
He clarifies: “The conventional position is that after the
Cabinet has approved a pact, nothing can be done. But by setting up a mechanism,
the Government has pre-empted a debate. If there has to be a mechanism, it has
to be a JPC.” Alleging it was a betrayal of Parliament, he also demanded that
the Constitution be amended to provide for mandatory Parliamentary approval of
international treaties impacting the nation’s sovereignty. His demand was
endorsed by the UNPA. With its pleas falling on deaf ears, the Opposition
stalled Parliament.
At one level, not a few would dismiss these outrageous
happenings as an exercise in political one-upmanship between the NDA and UPA.
The former drawing blood and the latter battling for political supremacy. At
another, and far more significantly, the fracas in both the Houses over the nuclear
deal has thrown up basic questions in regard to the quality and character of our
fledgling democracy and the sovereignty of Parliament representing the will of
the people.
The issue today is
not what happens to the nuclear deal. What matters is the unprecedented body
blow administered to Parliament and its sovereignty by the UPA Government. The
Opposition is correct on both counts. True, the Congress has every right to set
up any internal committee it chooses in tandem with any of its allies. But when
a Union Minister declares on behalf of the Union Cabinet that the findings of
the Congress-CPM panel would be “taken into account before operationalising the
deal”, it is clearly a case of the Government’s brazen and blatant attempt to
‘hoodwink’ Parliament and undermine its sovereignty.
Think. When Parliament is in session and a majority of the
MPs are opposed to the deal, as reflected in the walk-out the day the PM rose
to make his statement on the deal, the Government cannot set up a private deal
with one Party. That too with a Party which is supporting the UPA from the
outside and is not answerable to Parliament for its actions. Nor can the
Congress simply dismiss the matter as of “no consequence” to the Opposition or
Parliament. Neither can it fob it off by stating that international treaties do
not require Parliamentary approval.
Conveniently forgetting that in the past Parliament has
passed many resolutions on a variety of issues including foreign policy, which have
been binding on the Government. To now suggest that Parliamentary approval is
not necessary as the Union Cabinet has approved the deal, is wholly facetious. This
is akin to saying that Parliamentary resolution be damned and the Government,
enjoying a majority, can do as it pleases. Today it is the nuclear deal that is
poised to become a casualty of the Government’s authoritarian diktat. Tomorrow,
the Treasury Benches could jolly well scuttle Parliament and indeed, democracy
itself a la 1975.
A sad reflection, indeed, of the depth to which India’s
democracy has fallen. Transgressing
all limits of parliamentary morality. Not many seem to understand the
diabolical and dangerous dimensions of Parliament being bypassed. It needs to
be remembered that the temple of democracy is the bedrock of our nation State.
It represents the people of India,
who count upon it to function as the sovereign watchdog of their national
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. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sadly, the basic purpose of adopting the Committee system in
1993 is still not understood even by those, including leaders, who should know
better. The system was consciously introduced to provide greater Parliamentary
control over the Government and also greater accountability to Parliament. Patterned
on the Westminster
model, it offers the MPs an opportunity to take a closer look at the working of
the Executive. It facilitates deeper consideration of the issues through
cross-examination of top officials, something not possible in the House.
Parliament as a whole has neither the time nor is it
equipped to take an intensive look at various policies and programmes. Margaret
Thatcher, as Britain’s
Leader of the Opposition demanded adoption of the committee system. Clear in
her mind that the growing volume and complexity of government could no longer
be scrutinized effectively by the old process of debate on the floor of the
House. What was worse, few Governments were willing to change even a coma in
the House as both face and prestige were involved. Importantly, she adopted the
committee system on becoming her country’s Prime Minister and thereby helped in
toning up the Government.
Few of today’s leaders care to understand that what makes
Parliament supreme in India’s constitutional framework is its unlimited power.
It can even amend Article 368, which lays down the power and the procedure for
amending the Constitution itself. Moreover, Parliament enjoys an inherent right
to conduct its affairs without interference from any outside body. It is the
sole judge of its own procedure. Even procedural lapses do not vitiate its
proceedings. Until a Bill becomes law, the legislative process not being complete, the Courts cannot interfere.
It is high time the Government came transparently clean on
the nuclear deal. It cannot do what it likes without engaging Parliament. Since
the UPA has taken umbrage against setting up a JPC, the NDA should have been
smart enough to get the existing Standing Committee on External Affairs, headed
by one of its MP, to demand a close look at the nuclear deal. This would have
been well within its scope. The UPA has to desist from reducing Parliament to a
farce, using its brute majority to rubber stamp its policies trumpeted through
ministerial fiats.
The UPA Government has adamantly maintained that the
UPA-Left panel is an “internal arrangement” and that it has “nothing to do with
Parliament.” Additionally, it has offered a separate talk’s mechanism to the
BJP leaders to break the stalemate. But two questions remain unanswered: (i)
What is the legal or constitutional status of the panels? None. It is only a
group of individuals, howsoever eminent. (ii) Can the panels summon the main
interlocutors, namely, the National Security Adviser, the Foreign Secretary or Kakodkar?
Not at all. Parliament’s Standing Committee or a JPC alone has the required
authority.
Remember, Parliament’s greatest strength and utility under
the Westminster model of democracy lies in its control over the Executive. Alas,
this has been progressively eroded over the past two decades. Bringing things
to such a pass that a party in power
today has no qualms in making major pronouncements on the eve of a session of Parliament
or even when Parliament is in session. Never mind that it goes against all
Parliamentary norms. Recall, both Houses of Parliament were locked up in the
middle of the Budget session last year arbitrarily, ignoring important pending
bills and hundreds of questions.
Parliament must be put back on the rails and its sovereignty
upheld. It is the Government’s inherent duty to preserve, protect and defend
India’s Parliamentary democracy and ensure smooth running of the Lok Sabha and
the Rajya Sabha. It is all very well for the UPA Government to serenade that
the Congress will not let down
Parliament and will pull it back from the brink. But it should remember two
things. Cushions do not make a bed! And, you cannot fool all the people all the
time. How long will we allow our leaders to play ducks and drakes with
Parliament and, indeed, with democracy itself. ---- INFA
(Copyright India News & Feature
Alliance)
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