Parliament Logjam : Time To be Matured Democracy

Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan has suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days after finding they have caused “grave disorder” in the Parliament. Invoking the 347(A), the Honourable Speaker warned the opposition, “Don't force me to take stringent action…you cannot say they disrupted proceedings so we will also do the same…we cannot denigrate ourselves further.” At the behest of the Party leader Sonia Gandhi, they were consistently and willfully disrupting the Parliament proceedings since the Monsoon session began on July 21, 2015. The question arises from various corners that criticising the propriety of unreasonably interrupting the session by the Congress Party while the key bills like Goods and Service Tax Bill (GST) are pending in the Parliament. Contrary to the precedence of the previous Congress regime, the NDA Government has already expressed its willingness to debate the issue in the Parliament. Meanwhile, the Opposition parties including the Congress are evading the call of the BJP. Even after the Home Minister Rajnath Singh  unequivocally said that the Government has never shied away from discussion and is ready for it, the Congress is adamant on  the demand for resignation of allegedly tainted Minister and Chief  Ministers.

Intro: The Congress party has shamelessly not been allowing the Parliament to function since July 21, 2015. As far as the non-NDA parties are concerned, their all acts and decisions on national issues are also vote bank centric which may even harm the country’s interest but they are not bothered.

The present day politics has gone to such a low ebb that the country’s interest has been forgotten by all opposition parties. Instead, the vote bank politics has taken top place, leaving aside all other considerations at bottom priority. Under this back drop, the Congress party shamelessly has not been allowing the parliament to function since July 21 and is knowingly dishonouring the public’s outcry for passage of GST, Realty sector and Land Acquisition Bills in the Rajya Sabha, with the fact that the aforesaid bills were earlier initiated by them only and the said bills also had undergone through Parliamentary committees too. Not  passing the GST will hold its implemention from the next financial year 2016-17, the Congress is well  aware of this.
The critical analysis in respect of the negative attitude being adopted by the Congress at the moment reveals that its top leadership is totally immature at the moment since it is in the hands of younger and inexperienced group affiliated to Rahul Gandhi while the seniors are totally neglected. Also, the utterances being made by Rahul Gandhi in the recent past pin pointing PM as ‘Soot boot ki Sarkar’ or ‘we will make 56” ki chhati as 5.6” in six months’ are below the belt and do not qualify for  either to be  spoken in Parliament or in educated Public. Irony is that no senior and genuine person of Congress is daring to oppose the immature decisions of Rahul Gandhi despite knowing the fact that with this attitude, a 125 years old party will be doomed. This is the worst period for the Congress party where in there is really a paucity of sensible leaders who could steer clear the party from its bad time.     
As far as the other non NDA parties are concerned, all their acts and decisions on national issues are also vote bank centric which may even harm the country’s interest but they are not bothered. Take for example the case of the TMC, which is clearly appeasing its more than 30 per cent Muslim vote bank by taking all its decisions against BJP and Hindu majority. Lalu’s RJD and Mulayam’s Samajwadi Party are always appeasing their Muslim- Yadav vote bank and had become so shameless in their respective tenures that they are being openly criticised by the people for their extremism. Mayawati has always been over caring for her Schedule Caste and Muslim vote bank to such an extent that the Lucknow High Court has reversed the decisions taken by her in respect of SC’s promotion policy during her tenure. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar had broken his alliance with BJP for the sake of more than 18 per cent Muslim ‘vote bank’, otherwise this alliance was very formidable who would have ruled Bihar for a very long time. The Southern parties too take care of their minority votes while deciding about country’s major decisions.  

Continuation of the present trend has already denigrated Political party’s image in public eye to the bottom and gone are the days, say up to seventies, when Country’s interest was supreme in the eyes of Political leaders while taking even political decisions, whether they were in power or in opposition. How long this will continue where nobody is taking care of Country’s interest and all sorts of politics and hurdles are being exhibited in the way of decisions related to governance of the Country. Now, at this moment, a staunch Public pressure needs to be built up so that the Political Parties start behaving responsibly in the interest of our Mother land rather than concentrating only on their vote banks.
Surendra Kumar Gupta  (The writer is Ex-General Manager BHEL, New Delhi