The opening week of the Monsoon Session of the Indian Parliament was a washout. Statistics compiled show that the Parliament did not function for about 91 percent of the scheduled time that it was supposed to meet. While this is a huge loss to the exchequer in terms of money, as each hour’s sitting in the Lok Sabha alone costs approximately Rs 1.5 crore, and in the Rajya Sabha another Rs 1.1 crore an hour, it is also wasting the time of the House. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has gone on record to state that the party won’t allow Parliament to function unless External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj resigns and so does the Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Both the BJP leaders have been linked to the Lalit Modi row.
There exists the likelihood that the State Assembly session that begins on Monday in Goa could also see disruptions, as Opposition MLAs have already threatened to not allow the Assembly to function. If it is the resignations of Swaraj and Raje that are being sought in Parliament, in Goa it is the demand for the resignation of Industries Minister Mahadev Naik that is going to be the issue that could hold up the proceedings of the House. Naik, it is alleged, has misused funds that he got as a loan from the Legislature Department to buy shops, when the loan is solely for the purpose of buying or building a house.
That is not the only grouse in Goa. Opposition MLAs, especially the more vocal among them, which includes the Independents and a Congress MLA, are upset that they are not being given enough time to raise questions in the House. This, the MLAs have already brought to the notice of the media and the people. Naturally the MLAs wouldn’t want to appear as meek lambs in the House, when their constituents expect them to be ferocious lions. But if they are not given the opportunity to stand and speak in the House, which is their right as legislators, they need another way out to let their constituents know they are working for them – their vocal powers comes into play here.
Disrupting the proceedings of the House is turning out to be the weapon that every Opposition has and plays as often as it sees fit. It does not matter to the political party in Opposition that in the previous term, when it had been in government it had severely criticized the then Opposition of wasting the time of the House. This has been especially true of Parliament where the NDA had often walked out of the Lok Sabha or even boycotted the House during the previous term when the UPA was in government. The UPA, now that it is in Opposition, is doing the same, almost paying back the NDA for what it did in the previous years.
Truly, politicians need to learn the art of diplomacy and rapprochement, rather than depending solely on their vocal antics to make themselves heard. By holding up the proceedings of the House, they are not making productive use of the already limited time allotted to them in the Legislative Assembly. They are but playing to the galleries, and today, also to the television cameras that beam their actions directly into the living rooms of the people.
Politicians and political parties must understand that the people want and expect them to bring about a change in the systems currently employed in the State that will in turn make a difference in their own lives. Here is where the opposition has a positive role to play, in ensuring that the House legislates only such laws that will be of benefit to the people and the land. For, after all the noise and disruptions, the current government has a majority in the House and can push forth its Bills and Resolutions with ease. The disruptions will not stop the government from taking its agenda forward. It is for the Opposition to keep watch over the contents of the Bills and Resolutions that the government moves so that the people and the land are not compromised. Failure to do so is also an abdication of its duty, which the Opposition cannot and should not do.
