Losing The Shine


Written by S.G. Jilanee • Region • June 2010

5-1 A walk through the world's largest democracy. It is a strange irony that with the passage of time politics in India seems to be deteriorating rather than becoming healthier and more progressive. The shine and glitter that Jawaharlal Nehru had imparted with his persona, has eroded. There is overall stagnation.

Today, the august Lok Sabha appears more like a bazaar where hawkers hawk their ware and the noise is unbearable. Here, instead of hawkers there are slogan-mongers trading barbs. Much of the time is wasted on inane discussions and quarrels instead of legislation.

According to PRS Legislative Research, a New Delhi non-profit research outfit, the Lok Sabha has been seated for just 62% of the time it allotted itself for this budget session, which started Feb. 22 and ended May 7. The rest of the time was wasted. The Rajya Sabha (the upper house) sat for 64% of its scheduled time. Parliament is supposed to sit for six hours a day when in session.

Question hour, from 11 a.m. until noon in both houses has an even worse track record. In both houses, only 38% of question hour has actually been completed. After they are adjourned, sometimes the houses reconvene, sometimes they don't. Either way, time is lost.

Sitting for less the time allotted to the Raj and Lok Sabhas in the running sessions of the parliament, followed by a "worse" question hour, the houses present a spectacle of utter irresponsibility and chaos.

The opposition outrage at fuel prices, cricket shenanigans, alleged phone-tapping et al and the hot exchanges that followed have wreaked havoc on Parliamentary productivity.

Observers recall with nostalgia the halcyon days "when parliamentarians fulfilled their proper roles in acting as a check on the executive." And it was not very long ago; only last summer. During the monsoon session (July to August) "the opposition forced the government to rethink a proposal to prevent the public disclosure of judges' financial assets and another time it insisted that a Cabinet minister or at least minister of state be present to introduce a bill - the kind of nuts and bolts of which days in the chambers are made."

Now, while the opposition has found its feet and its voice after the last election, the government has squandered its many chances to productively pursue its legislative agenda. The consequence is almost a daily spectacle of chaos and there appears little prospect of more responsible behavior anytime soon, according to political observers.

One of the issues that led to a furor in the current session and disrupted its business was the allegation about the tapping of mobile telephones of political leaders, including central minister Sharad Pawar and the chief minister of the state of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, by a security agency. The uproar subsided after home minister, P Chidambaram, told the Lok Sabha that telephone tapping or eavesdropping on political leaders was not authorized by the government.

Next was the rumpus in the parliament over a leaked inquiry report on the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992. The Liberhan commission report, though submitted to the government, but its contents have not been made public officially. Yet the Indian Express published extracts from it.

Some 2,000 people died in riots across India after the mosque was demolished. The commission was set up to investigate events that led to a Hindu mob tearing down the disputed mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya. Led by former high court judge MS Liberhan, the inquiry took 17 years to complete its work, at a cost of more than 65m rupees.

The leak is said to blame senior BJP figures including former prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee and L. K Advani. The BJP therefore was outraged. Mr. Advani waved copies of the newspaper and demanded to know who was behind the leaked report. "I'm surprised. The report is not even before parliament, so how did it get leaked to this newspaper?" he asked.

BJP leaders accused the Congress party-led government of "selective leaks" to distract attention from the economy and corruption - and demanded that parliament see the report immediately. When Home Minister P Chidambaram denied his ministry was behind the "unfortunate" leak, the angry opposition shouted: "No, it's not just unfortunate, it's shameful."

A third uproar was triggered by the women's quota bill. The government had attempted to pass legislation reserving a third of all seats for women in parliament. But it provoked sheer chaos as opposition politicians forced repeated adjournments.

The government had been confident that the Women Reservation Bill, which has been long overdue, would gather the required votes easily to pass in the upper house. But the Rajya Sabha was adjourned twice as politicians opposing the bill shouted down speakers and refused to allow the introduction of the proposed legislation and a scheduled debate.

The ruling Congress party, its allies and the BJP have pledged their support in public. But several socialist parties oppose it on the ground that the law would lead to a monopoly by upper-caste women at the expense of lower caste and religious minority Muslims.

"We are not anti-women but we want reservations for women hailing from minority and backward classes first," Mulayam Singh Yadav, a leader of the pro-Muslim Samajwadi (Socialist) party told reporters. Yadav said the bill was an attempt by the Congress and the BJP to appease the rich and the influential upper class.

Attempts to pass the bill have been blocked by various political groups in the past who have demanded separate quotas for women from Muslim and low-caste communities.

Then there was the uproar over skyrocketing prices.Tharoor, IPL controversy and Maosit attacks on security forces in which 76 security personnel were massacred by Maoists at Dantewada on April 6.

Responding to the debate on the issue, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that although the incident was a grave tragedy, it should work as a wake-up call, otherwise nothing could wake up the country.

Noting that the Central Reserved Paramilitary Force, which was meant to be a 'reserved force', is definitely overburdened, Chidambaram said that there was no development in most of the Maoist-inflicted places like Lalgarh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and the Centre cannot be blamed alone for this. "Even state governments are equally responsible for it," he added.

"The scandal over Union minister Shashi Tharoor's involvement with the Kochi IPL team is also taking its toll on Parliament proceedings. Tharoor was summoned by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony to explain the ongoing controversy over the Kochi IPL franchise to the Congress party and the government. The opposition has demanded Tharoor's sacking."

Tharoor reportedly explained his version to both the ministers in the meeting. Pranab Mukherjee and Antony continued their meeting after Tharoor left and discussed how to tackle the issue when it is raised by the opposition in the Parliament.

Another issue over which the opposition is sharpening its fangs, is rising prices. Left parties are also up in arms against the government over hike in fuel prices and rising inflation. The Communist parties and other non-NDA and non-UPA groups have threatened to move cut motions against the finance bill.

Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj has said the party won't hesitate to vote against the government, irrespective of which party's cut motion is taken up. If the cut motion is brought in, it would mean that the Congress-led ruling coalition will have to work harder to ensure that its thin majority is not eroded by absence of ruling party members.