“Parliamentary system of government is much more than government by discussion. It is negation to hereditary rule. Whosoever wants to rule must be elected by the people from time to time. He must obtain approval of the people. There are two pillars on which the Parliamentary system of government rests and works.”
– Dr Babasaheb B R Ambedkar, Future of Parliamentary Democracy, The speech D.A.V. College, Jalandhar on October 28, 1951
Finally, another round of elections is over and the time is for the real execution of democracy at the legislative level in the Parliament. As per the general cliché, it is the responsibility of the treasury benches to ensure the smooth functioning of the Legislative Houses. The corollary is can Opposition completely shun itself away from this most important responsibility in the Parliamentary Democracy by blocking the legislative business and what can be the justifiable reasons for this blockade strategy? Is it that the Congress is shying away from taking a posture on two critical bills, pertaining to criminalising Triple Talaq and taking action against the illegal migrants, slated for this session?
Democracy should not be the dictatorship of numbers and therefore, Opposition parties should have the right to employ the strategy of blocking the business. Another political argument is made that the ruling Party while sitting in Opposition employed the same strategy so why shouldn’t we. First of all, two wrongs do not make them right. The reason for blocking the Parliament should be
justifiable.
Earlier occasions of disrupting the Parliament proceedings were pertaining to the cases of corruption. This time the reason Congress is giving is the ‘honour of former Prime Minister’ Dr Manmohan Singh by demanding the apology of the Prime Minister.
For some strange reasons the Congress leaders including the former PM and the former Vice- President had a secret meeting with former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and Pakistan envoy Sohail Mahmood etc on December 6, 2017 at the residence of controversial Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar. All this happened
without informing the Ministry of External Affairs. Initially the Congress denied the happening of any such meeting. When Prime Minister Modi raised this issue in an election meeting, Congress suddenly made it a prestige issue.
On foreign policy issues, there is a tradition of consensus building in Bharat. With respect to Pakistan, the principle is all the more important. Instead of substantiating the reasons for such secret meeting to the nation, the Congress denied it and then gave a twist of ‘insulting the PM office’. Congress and especially the newly elected President of the party Rahul Gandhi otherwise did not show much respect to Dr Manmohan Singh when he was the Prime Minister. The tearing away of the Ordinance passed by his Cabinet in a Press Conference was the glaring example. The derogatory words used by the Congress leaders and allies during the election campaign against the present Prime Minister is more demeaning to the office. So the logic of disrupting the Parliament for the honour of ‘PM office’ does not hold much ground.
Under the newly-elected President, the Congress perhaps wants to show its resurgent present with this blockade. The Party will have to explain the agenda behind the secret meeting with Pakistani leaders in the Parliament, can be another apprehension. The current session has a significant agenda of discussing important Bills including the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which meant to stop the influx of migrants from Bangladesh and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 to declare the practice of triple talaq a criminal offence. During the discussion Congress will have to take a stand on these critical issues and the pseudo-secular face of the Party will be exposed again.?This must be the real reason to block the Parliament.
Against the warning of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Congress has weakened the first pillar of democracy by accepting the hereditary leadership and now by denying the discussion on nationally important issues, Congress is abating the other one also. This same abhorrence towards democratic culture has led to the decline of the grand old Party. Mere social media makeover of the leader cannot revive the Party but a clear ideological position and building organisational strength is the key. Parliament is the platform for that. If the Congress fails to use it, it would only be pushing the agenda of ‘Congress-Mukta-Bharat’.
@PrafullaKetkar
