New Delhi: Yashwant Sinha is a BJP Member of Parliament and a former Union Minister of External Affairs.Today was the second day of the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha. The House assembled as usual at 11 am. The Speaker announced the Question Hour. Immediately, all hell broke loose and members from the Congress party, the supporting parties of the UPA and some others rushed into the well of the House and disrupted House proceedings. After a few minutes of this not unexpected drama, the Speaker adjourned the House to meet again at 12 noon.
Normally, I would have stayed back for the noon session, but I left Parliament House in disgust. What a farce we have made of our democracy?
There are reports in the media which suggest that the 15th Lok Sabha will go down in history as the least productive. Who should be blamed for this mess? The Opposition cannot run the House; it is primarily the responsibility of the government to ensure that Houses of Parliament function. (
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I remember an episode when the NDA was in power and I was the Minister for External Affairs. The US troops had invaded Iraq and a war had started. When Parliament met, the Congress party started disrupting proceedings in both Houses from day one. Its demand was that Parliament should pass a resolution condemning the US action. I was against a resolution. I wanted Parliament to discuss the matter, where members could express their view and so could the government. This was not acceptable to the Congress party and the stalemate continued for many days.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, however, was a great democrat and a great parliamentarian. He was not comfortable with this situation. He, therefore, instructed us to reach a settlement with the Congress party. Ultimately, the government of the day bent, accepted the demand of the Opposition, drafted a resolution jointly with the Opposition, which was moved from the Chair in both Houses and brought the stalemate to an end. Has the present Prime Minister ever cared to take any initiative to end an impasse in Parliament?
When Pranab Mukherjee was in government, he used to play an important role in resolving, even avoiding confrontations. There is nobody in the Government today who plays or can play that role.
The present stalemate is entirely the creation of the Congress party. It has thoroughly mismanaged the Telengana issue. It has made such a complicated mess of it that there is no light visible at the end of the tunnel. Tempers both in Telengana and Seemandhara are at the highest pitch. (
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It appears as if the country is being divided and not merely a state. Contrast this with the ease with which Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were created as separate states during the NDA regime.
The policy of the Congress party is to run with the hare and hunt with the hound. It is one of constant posturing for political gain. That such gimmicks just before an election do not pay any electoral dividends is well established, but the Grand Old Party has no use for this precept.
The damage being done to the institution of Parliament is incalculable. Ruling party members from Andhra Pradesh move a vote of no-confidence against their own government. They rush to the well of the House to disrupt the proceedings of the House day in and day out. The Congress Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh along with his cabinet colleagues and MLAs sits on dharna in Delhi. Ministers of the Government of India from Andhra Pradesh join his bandwagon.
A minister of the Congress party gives notice to the Speaker for suspension of Question Hour so that he could raise the issue of the safety and security of the students from the North-East in Delhi. Important policy statements are freely made by the ministers of the government outside Parliament even when Parliament is in session. The Finance Minister goes to Davos and criticises his political opponents at home in his speech.
I came to Parliament as a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1988. Earlier, I had seen it function from the official gallery as a civil servant. Our Parliament has built some of the finest traditions over the last many decades. Today, I see them being destroyed in front of my eyes. Can they be rebuilt once again? A difficult question to answer at this stage.
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