Was BJP a lenient opposition as compared to Congress?
August 4, 2015
5.00/5 (100.00%) 1 vote
Published in elections.in (http://www.elections.in/blog/was-bjp-a-lenient-opposition-as-compared-to-congress/)
The impasse over ‘Lalitgate’ and
‘Vyapam’ scam threatens to washout the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament.
After an all-party meeting convened by the Lok Sabha Speaker on 30 July failed
to break the Parliamentary deadlock, the government convened an all-party
meeting to save the session on 3 August, but without any success. Instead,
things came to a flashpoint the very same day when Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra
Mahajan suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days after the government approached
the Speaker for frequent obstructions in the House throughout the session.
Disruptions
in Parliament and Suspension of Congress MPs
Although Mahajan was well within her
powers to suspend the Congress members, her unprecedented action is now being
termed by the Congress as an exercise to muzzle democracy. Congress leader
Digvijaya Singh pointed out that no MP was suspended either during National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Behari Vajpayee, or under the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government when even the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was “not allowing Parliament to function…” Singh
quipped, “This is the basic difference between Democratic Leaders and a
Dictator. Basic difference between Atal ji and Modi”.
Apparently, the Speaker’s move has
further united the Opposition that now decries such an action by Mahajan – an
old BJP-Jan Sangh hand. The Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Janata
Dal United and the Left have now decided to boycott Parliament for five days to
protest the suspension of the Congress members.
As it is, the Congress-led
opposition has refused to yield. It relentlessly bays for the blood of External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje – Chief Minister of the
BJP-ruled Rajasthan – for their alleged role in ‘Lalitgate’. The opposition has
also launched a scathing attack on Shivraj Singh Chouhan – the chief minister
of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh – over ‘Vyapam’ .
As of now, well over half of the
21-day session is lost as the Opposition is adamant on its demand for the
removal of the BJP leaders as a pre-condition for Parliament to function and
outrightly rejected the government’s call for a debate on the issues.
Under the present circumstances, the
government refuses to be cornered by the opposition’s demands and sticks to its
decision that there will be no resignations.
To make matter worse for the NDA
government, an uncompromising Congress has now even found fresh targets by
digging up yet another ‘scam’ involving ex-chief minister of Himachal Pradesh
and BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur. The party has
accused the father-son duo of leasing out a 16-acre land to the Himachal
Cricket Association at Rs.12 annually that cost the state exchequer a loss to
the tune of Rs. 100 crore!
Parliamentary
Disruption as a Way to Censure Government
The Congress President Sonia Gandhi,
with just 44 Congress members in the Lok Sabha, did succeed in stalling the
proceedings of the House in the monsoon session. While to protest is an
inherent hallmark of a democratic setup, the larger question is whether the way
adopted by the Congress is the right way to censure a government?
Consider that the Speaker suspended
the Congress members only after she had called most of these members by name
when they were displaying placards during the Question Hour. Besides, Rule 374
(A) of Parliament clearly states that in the event of “grave disorder
occasioned by a member coming into the well of the House or abusing the Rules
of the House persistently and willfully obstructing its business by shouting
slogans or otherwise, such member shall, on being named by the Speaker, stand
automatically suspended from the service of the House for five consecutive
sittings or the remainder of the session, whichever is less”.
Yet, such disruptions are nothing
new and stalling proceedings of Parliament is an established way to censure the
government. The question is how and when should such protests be used and for
what purpose. It needs to be asked whether the opposition indeed had exhausted
the other provisions to censure the government before resorting to stalling the
proceedings of parliament.
Recalling that such logjams were
frequent during his tenure, too, when the BJP was in the opposition, former
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, in a recent interview to Press Trust of India, had
attributed eruption of these “no holds barred” fights to the overwhelming
feeling that the opposition was not being heard and that “all ways for
settlement of the demands of the opposition are closed”.
Apparently, paralysing the function
of the House seems to be a rather regrettable reality despite the fact that
there are various provisions under the rules to censure the government that
entail debates rather than disallowing the House to function. “It is weakening
the whole process of Parliamentary democracy. Opposition finds no way out,”
Chatterjee laments.
Does this imply that a bedlam in the
House is the only effective tool to ensure that one’s voice heard in
parliament?
Incidentally, the manner in which
anarchy in recent times has replaced orderly Parliamentary debates is an
alarmingly serious proposition in view of its far-reaching consequences. It is
setting bad examples. Consider, how Congress member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was
suspended during the ongoing session for a day for “insulting the Chair”, after
he crossed the Well of the House and banged a placard while trying to reach for
the speaker’s desk!
Logjam
in Parliament and Its Perils
Logjam affects business and in the
present context, it threatens to hold up 11 key bills including the Goods and
Services Tax (GST) Bill as well as debate on Pak-sponsored terror that were to
be taken up during the session. (Any delay in the clearance of the GST Bill can
hit the reform process by a year!).
Yet another crucial aspect of such
logjams is that they cause huge burden on the government as each minute of
running Parliament during sessions costs the exchequer a whopping Rs. 2.5 lakh
– it is the taxpayers’ money!
Little wonder that in face of the
present impasse, while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has accused the Opposition
parties of resorting to “negativism”, Union Minister of State for Commerce and
Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, has squarely targeted Sonia Gandhi: “If this
session gets washed out, Sonia Gandhi will have to take the blame.”
But isn’t the BJP now getting to
taste its own medicine?
Disruptions
in Parliament During UPA Regime
When the UPA was at the Centre,
(between 2004 and 2014), the winter session of 2010 could work for just three
per cent of the scheduled time. Even during the Budget session that year,
frequent disruptions and walkouts, largely over issues of 2G spectrum
allocation, phone tapping, and IPL controversy, led to wastage of 115 working
hours out of the 385 of both the Houses and the government could only get six
of the 27 planned bills cleared during the session! (Refer http://www.elections.in/blog/parliamentary-sessions-actually-working-towards-meant/)
Similarly in 2012, the entire winter
session worked for only 22 per cent that was less than a quarter of the
scheduled time, to pass only four bills as the BJP then stalled the
proceedings. The Rajya Sabha was only marginally better then, working for 29%
of the total time! At that time, BJP leader M.Venkaiah Naidu had contended that
the “BJP is demanding not just the resignation of the Prime Minister, but that
of the entire cabinet. This is culmination of so many scams and scandals
including 2G and Adarsh Housing”. He had then said that “they (the UPA
government) don’t act after a debate; don’t adhere to accountability. This
Parliamentary accountability is as important as debates”.
Interestingly, the Union Home
Minister Rajnath Singh recently claimed that the BJP never used placards when
it was in opposition. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar sought to point out that
“When one Parliament session was washed out that was winter session and we
never asked resignation, we asked JPC. And the next session first day they
accepted the JPC”.
Yet, the fact remains that BJP never
missed any opportunity to create ruckus in Parliament and stall the
proceedings. Just consider that in 2013, both budget and winter sessions were
forced to be curtailed, and parliament had lost 56 per cent of its precious
time because of bedlam.
In comparison, the first four
parliament sessions saw that the Lok Sabha lost just 1 hour 46 minutes due to
interruptions, and the Rajya Sabha lost only 4 hours 21 minutes, till matter
came to a virtual standstill during the ongoing monsoon session.
It goes beyond saying that logjams,
despite being an effective way to register protests, defeat the very purpose of
Parliament to discuss, debate and make laws.
Suspension of members is one way to curb
the practice but can logjams be averted?
At a conference of presiding
officers of legislative bodies in Lucknow on 31 January 2015, Mahajan had
called for a consensus against “undignified” modes of protests like members
raising placards in the House or rushing into the Well of the House. She had
suggested automatic suspension of the members if they barged into the well of
the House.
But can these suggestions really
work in a democratic setup? There is much more than what meets the eyes in such
deadlocks and resulting suspensions!
- See more at:
http://www.elections.in/blog/was-bjp-a-lenient-opposition-as-compared-to-congress/#sthash.54wDsYeG.dpuf
Was BJP a lenient opposition as compared to Congress?
By Deepak Parvatiyar
August 4, 2015
August 4, 2015
The impasse over ‘Lalitgate’ and ‘Vyapam’ scam threatens to washout the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament. After an all-party meeting convened by the Lok Sabha Speaker on 30 July failed to break the Parliamentary deadlock, the government convened an all-party meeting to save the session on 3 August, but without any success. Instead, things came to a flashpoint the very same day when Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days after the government approached the Speaker for frequent obstructions in the House throughout the session.
Disruptions in Parliament and Suspension of Congress MPs
Although Mahajan was well within her powers to suspend the Congress members, her unprecedented action is now being termed by the Congress as an exercise to muzzle democracy. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh pointed out that no MP was suspended either during National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Behari Vajpayee, or under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government when even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was “not allowing Parliament to function…” Singh quipped, “This is the basic difference between Democratic Leaders and a Dictator. Basic difference between Atal ji and Modi”.Apparently, the Speaker’s move has further united the Opposition that now decries such an action by Mahajan – an old BJP-Jan Sangh hand. The Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Janata Dal United and the Left have now decided to boycott Parliament for five days to protest the suspension of the Congress members.
As of now, well over half of the 21-day session is lost as the Opposition is adamant on its demand for the removal of the BJP leaders as a pre-condition for Parliament to function and outrightly rejected the government’s call for a debate on the issues.
Under the present circumstances, the government refuses to be cornered by the opposition’s demands and sticks to its decision that there will be no resignations.
To make matter worse for the NDA government, an uncompromising Congress has now even found fresh targets by digging up yet another ‘scam’ involving ex-chief minister of Himachal Pradesh and BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur. The party has accused the father-son duo of leasing out a 16-acre land to the Himachal Cricket Association at Rs.12 annually that cost the state exchequer a loss to the tune of Rs. 100 crore!
Parliamentary Disruption as a Way to Censure Government
The Congress President Sonia Gandhi, with just 44 Congress members in the Lok Sabha, did succeed in stalling the proceedings of the House in the monsoon session. While to protest is an inherent hallmark of a democratic setup, the larger question is whether the way adopted by the Congress is the right way to censure a government?Consider that the Speaker suspended the Congress members only after she had called most of these members by name when they were displaying placards during the Question Hour. Besides, Rule 374 (A) of Parliament clearly states that in the event of “grave disorder occasioned by a member coming into the well of the House or abusing the Rules of the House persistently and willfully obstructing its business by shouting slogans or otherwise, such member shall, on being named by the Speaker, stand automatically suspended from the service of the House for five consecutive sittings or the remainder of the session, whichever is less”.
Yet, such disruptions are nothing new and stalling proceedings of Parliament is an established way to censure the government. The question is how and when should such protests be used and for what purpose. It needs to be asked whether the opposition indeed had exhausted the other provisions to censure the government before resorting to stalling the proceedings of parliament.
Recalling that such logjams were frequent during his tenure, too, when the BJP was in the opposition, former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, in a recent interview to Press Trust of India, had attributed eruption of these “no holds barred” fights to the overwhelming feeling that the opposition was not being heard and that “all ways for settlement of the demands of the opposition are closed”.
Apparently, paralysing the function of the House seems to be a rather regrettable reality despite the fact that there are various provisions under the rules to censure the government that entail debates rather than disallowing the House to function. “It is weakening the whole process of Parliamentary democracy. Opposition finds no way out,” Chatterjee laments.
Does this imply that a bedlam in the House is the only effective tool to ensure that one’s voice heard in parliament?
Incidentally, the manner in which anarchy in recent times has replaced orderly Parliamentary debates is an alarmingly serious proposition in view of its far-reaching consequences. It is setting bad examples. Consider, how Congress member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was suspended during the ongoing session for a day for “insulting the Chair”, after he crossed the Well of the House and banged a placard while trying to reach for the speaker’s desk!
Logjam in Parliament and Its Perils
Logjam affects business and in the present context, it threatens to hold up 11 key bills including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill as well as debate on Pak-sponsored terror that were to be taken up during the session. (Any delay in the clearance of the GST Bill can hit the reform process by a year!).Yet another crucial aspect of such logjams is that they cause huge burden on the government as each minute of running Parliament during sessions costs the exchequer a whopping Rs. 2.5 lakh – it is the taxpayers’ money!
Little wonder that in face of the present impasse, while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has accused the Opposition parties of resorting to “negativism”, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, has squarely targeted Sonia Gandhi: “If this session gets washed out, Sonia Gandhi will have to take the blame.”
But isn’t the BJP now getting to taste its own medicine?
Disruptions in Parliament During UPA Regime
When the UPA was at the Centre, (between 2004 and 2014), the winter session of 2010 could work for just three per cent of the scheduled time. Even during the Budget session that year, frequent disruptions and walkouts, largely over issues of 2G spectrum allocation, phone tapping, and IPL controversy, led to wastage of 115 working hours out of the 385 of both the Houses and the government could only get six of the 27 planned bills cleared during the session! (Refer http://www.elections.in/blog/parliamentary-sessions-actually-working-towards-meant/)Similarly in 2012, the entire winter session worked for only 22 per cent that was less than a quarter of the scheduled time, to pass only four bills as the BJP then stalled the proceedings. The Rajya Sabha was only marginally better then, working for 29% of the total time! At that time, BJP leader M.Venkaiah Naidu had contended that the “BJP is demanding not just the resignation of the Prime Minister, but that of the entire cabinet. This is culmination of so many scams and scandals including 2G and Adarsh Housing”. He had then said that “they (the UPA government) don’t act after a debate; don’t adhere to accountability. This Parliamentary accountability is as important as debates”.
Interestingly, the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh recently claimed that the BJP never used placards when it was in opposition. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar sought to point out that “When one Parliament session was washed out that was winter session and we never asked resignation, we asked JPC. And the next session first day they accepted the JPC”.
Yet, the fact remains that BJP never missed any opportunity to create ruckus in Parliament and stall the proceedings. Just consider that in 2013, both budget and winter sessions were forced to be curtailed, and parliament had lost 56 per cent of its precious time because of bedlam.
In comparison, the first four parliament sessions saw that the Lok Sabha lost just 1 hour 46 minutes due to interruptions, and the Rajya Sabha lost only 4 hours 21 minutes, till matter came to a virtual standstill during the ongoing monsoon session.
It goes beyond saying that logjams, despite being an effective way to register protests, defeat the very purpose of Parliament to discuss, debate and make laws.
Suspension of members is one way to curb the practice but can logjams be averted?
At a conference of presiding officers of legislative bodies in Lucknow on 31 January 2015, Mahajan had called for a consensus against “undignified” modes of protests like members raising placards in the House or rushing into the Well of the House. She had suggested automatic suspension of the members if they barged into the well of the House.
But can these suggestions really work in a democratic setup? There is much more than what meets the eyes in such deadlocks and resulting suspensions!
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