PETTY POLITICS MARS PARLIAMENT

Predictably, the second part of the Budget session began on Monday on, as they say, a stormy note. The Congress, playing the victim, accused the Government of destabilizing its governments in the States, notably in Arunachal Pradesh and in Uttarakhand. Its members trooped into the well of the House in Lok Sabha and created a shindy. But because the Government commands a comfortable majority in the Lower House, it had to contend with counter-sloganeering from the ruling party benches. The Speaker Sumitra Mahajan reminded the Congress members about the tradition not to raise sub judice matters while the Congress leaders countered that they wanted to discuss the decision of the Central government to invoke Article 356. With such exchanges it became clear that neither side was ready to budge from its known and pre-determined stand. Therefore, the logic of numbers obliged the Opposition to bear with the return of `normalcy’ in the Lok Sabha, with the ruling party pressing ahead with the scheduled debate minus the Opposition. It was, however, in the Rajya Sabha where the Opposition Congress forced a no-work schedule throughout the day. With the majority arrayed against it, the Government had to put up with sharp criticism from the Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and others who argued that there was a gross abuse of Article 356 both in the case of Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and that this militated against the letter and spirit of a democratic constitution. The Congress was ready with its censure motion, registering the protest of the majority of the members present and voting against the questionable interventions in the two States where the party governments were dislodged. It was not as if the Government was completely defenseless. It had its own reasons for doing what it had in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The common starting point in both cases was that the ruling party faced rebellion within its own ranks. A substantial number of Congress MLAs in both States had openly revolted against the incumbent chief minister, and the party high command, behaving in an imperious manner, had denied them a hearing, thus, forcing them to openly raise the banner of revolt against the respective chief ministers. Indeed, as the subsequent events duly corroborated that line of reasoning, in Arunachal Pradesh a new government headed by the party rebels was now in place and it had duly proved its majority on the floor of the Assembly. The origins of the trouble for the Congress even in Uttarakhand lay within its own ranks, though because of the insensitive handling by New Delhi it had sought to shift the blame for the mess to the Centre.

Yet, from the first day of the post-recess session it was clear that the legislative business of the Government could end up being a major casualty of the stand-off over Uttarakhand. People will be the ultimate losers if the GST Bill does not move forward or the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Code fails to get the nod of Parliament. No less important is the on-going crisis caused by drought in large parts of the country. With the waterless Latur in the news, is it not important that the nation’s Parliament discusses at length the ramifications of the drought and the ways to alleviate the misery of a very large section of the people living in the affected areas? There are a number of other issues which should prick the conscience of our `netas’, but, it seems, they would rather indulge in wasteful ~tu, tu, mein, mein~ over relatively insignificant matters than send out a signal of solidarity and support to the long-suffering masses ravaged by one of the worst droughts in recent history. The Opposition has a point when it argues that the onus to run Parliament lies essentially with the ruling party. By doing provocative things on the eve of a parliamentary session the Government needlessly sours the atmosphere for normalcy and good conduct to prevail in Parliament. The Opposition will oppose, but how to push its legislative agenda through a Parliament where it lacks numbers in at least one of the two Houses is for the Government to consider. Seeking cooperation of the Opposition and provoking it simultaneously cannot yield results.