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)