The hills in Goa are being shaven. They are all red. The worst forest fires in Goa’s history are burning down both the forests and the bio diversity. The Goa assembly may not get time to discuss the matter. These are small issues for them. The assembly may get some time to pass congratulatory motions and a few minutes to pass the laws the government has lined up for the state.
A five days budget session with The CM presenting the annual budget on March 27th with three days discussion and vote on account with the full budget discussion in the monsoon session has been announced. Of the five days March 30 could be a holiday. The winter session was a four day affair with the private members’ day cut off, though the speaker had announced a week long session. The month long monsoon session in July 2022 was curtailed using the excuse of Panchayat elections. The glaring irony of the Goa assembly’s sinking graph can no longer be ignored. Goa cannot follow Gujarat. Before the dissolution of the last assembly, Gujarat had a two days session without the zero hour and the question hour.
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We are part of world’s most populous nation. We boast of being the mother of democracy. In the temple of democracy, the courts and other institutions are the sacred places and the parliament/state legislatures are the sanctum sanctorum. It is here that the state’s destiny is shaped. Policies and laws are approved for governing the state. These are spaces of dispassionate discussions and constructive debates over the future. Indian parliamentary practices innovated a ‘zero hour’ to highlight issues of public importance. The question hour is the hour of the day where the ministers are questioned. In ‘Amrit Kaal’ time our democracy and it’s institutions must be at their shinning best. The sheen can be seen when the performance is stellar and public will repose faith in the system. If they remain unused or underutilized they will only gather moss.
The framers of the constitution did not imagine the type of people we would get to work the architecture they had prepared for us. They ordained that the gap between two sessions should not be six months. We were adopting a Westminster model. They must have never thought that we would get a two or four days session to fulfil that requirement. The size of UK may be as much as our state of UP with one third it’s population. The mother of Parliament meets about 150 days in a year. Our parliament manages to meet about 120 days, though that ought to be much more. If that is parliamentary legacy, why should the state assemblies not meet at least half that time? The Lok Sabha speaker was in Goa in November 2019 for a seminar. Even he expressed worry over reduction in the number of days when state assemblies are in session. He opined that the state assemblies should be in session for at least 60 days.
In Goa, the Mhadei matter, the type of tourism, Goa as coal corridor, and the changes in the TCP, other burning issues and scandals in administration must be debated. Instead we have all major bills brought before the house and bulldozed without any discussion by sheer muscular strength of numbers. How can we get good laws when they get passed in a few minutes without any debate with the minister in charge only speaking? The bills are normally circulated last minute to avoid any debate. We get a Bhumiputra bill or a bill empowering the Chief Town Planner to tweak the regional plan or a bill to regularize illegal constructions.
Take Covid-19 handling of the situation. We are fortunate that the High Court almost took the driver’s place in oxygen management. There was hardly any discussion on the oxygen deaths at GMC in the assembly. The Court is now tasked with the responsibility of monitoring sound pollution. How many times the sound matter boomed in the house? The regional plan is emasculated like never before, but on that issue there is normally no difference of opinion and no personal differences amongst members. There is no opposition rant when it comes to TCP matters. Strange but True!
The Government has great cover in the house with 33 including the speaker. The main opposition is a rump of three. Still the Government is unable to handle their aggression. In the earlier house, the principal opposition had four members but the government was found lacking giving a poor impression to the public. The CM and the ministers are put on the mat and the opposition despite their poor numbers, have put up an above average performance forcing the government to run away from the house. The government does not have the intellectual wherewithal to debate and persuade the house on any issue. Sessions are convened to meet the ceremonial requirement of Governor’s address or to pass a vote on account or the supplementary budget or budget or some bills passed. Legislative assembly sessions are only becoming a formality. It is a clear trend towards shorter sessions. The business advisory committee is always the hand maid of the government.
The Goa assembly working for 15 days a year since 2019 reflects on the poor state leadership. Treasury benches are happy not to face the house. Even the opposition whose performance is above average despite their poor numbers are also taking the assembly’s sinking graph lying down. Except a press conference by some parties there is no debate on the issue. The media (except Herald) has not brought the matter on the table. At a time when foreign rating agencies are downgrading our democracy itself, short sessions with no discussion and debate on crucial and burning issues shall only contribute towards the decline.
(The writer is a practicing advocate and a political thinker)
