aNearly two weeks after opposition MPs interrupted the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday tweeted an interesting nugget from the annals of India’s parliamentary history.
On 4 June 1949, HC Mukherjee, the Deputy Chairman of the Constituent Assembly to draft the Constitution of India, requested the members to issue visitor cards only to those they know personally. Mukherjee said he had information that members of the RSS would enter the Constituent Assembly and create unrest. Timely intervention prevented this.
When the Draft Constitution was being debated in the Constituent Assembly on 4 January 1949, the RSS tried to create unrest. Here is an authentic record. And today it has become as a great champion of the constitution!!! pic.twitter.com/89NLrX2bkj
— jairam ramesh (@jairam_ramesh) 29 July 2022
At a time when the monsoon session is in danger and the BJP-led NDA government is taking a high moral ground and blaming the opposition for the impasse, the 1949 incident highlights how the disruption of parliamentary Democracy has been a part and parcel. But what is different now is the increasing frequency of disruptions, the growing animosity between the Treasury bench and the opposition, and the government’s handling of the situation.
The ongoing monsoon season is the latest example of this. 27 opposition MPs have been suspended from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for the entire session ending on August 13.
Legislative work has almost come to a standstill, not only inside the House but also outside and with opposition from MPs for this whole night, Debates and discussions have been left behind, with opposition MPs either boycotting the House or being suspended. Important bills are being passed without any debate or discussion.
This monsoon season is no exception. Even during the 2020 monsoon session, which was hit by frequent disruptions, the Narendra Modi government managed to pass 20 bills in the Lok Sabha and 19 in the Rajya Sabha, most of them without any discussion or reference to parliamentary committees.
What has also troubled the opposition is the frequency with which members are being suspended for protesting and holding placards.
The number of opposition MPs suspended from both houses of Parliament since 2014 – when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power – has almost increased three times The data obtained by ThePrint from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats, over the past eight years, shows.
This has prompted several opposition MPs to question the need to hold a Parliament session if they are not allowed to question, debate and discuss the government and its policies. In addition, disruptions also hamper the productivity of Parliament.
That’s why mounting disruptions in parliament are ThePrint’s newsmakers of the week.
Read also: Kharge says Congress will not join panel to probe RS uproar, says it is to scare ‘MPs’
BJP’s changed stand on disruption
While the BJP-led NDA government has been accusing the opposition of disrupting the proceedings of the House, senior party leaders, when the BJP was in opposition, defended the disruptions.
Feather 12 August 2012Former finance minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley had told reporters that there are occasions when “disruption in Parliament brings more benefits to the country”. “Our strategy does not allow us to use Parliament (for debate) without holding the government accountable… We don’t want to give the government a way out of debate,” he had said.
His colleague and former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj also said in September 2012, “Not allowing Parliament to function is a form of democracy like any other.”
But clearly, with the BJP-led NDA government now firmly in power, the stand has changed.
Not only are opposition MPs being suspended continuously for protesting inside the House, but it is also being alleged that the ruling government is only showing the Treasury Bench in the live telecast of parliamentary proceedings.
Read also: Interruptions in Parliament are nothing new. But this monsoon season saw a new aggression
Growing hostility replaced bonhomie
It is not that there was no interference or suspension of MPs in the proceedings of the previous House. In March 1989, 63 MPs were suspended for three days for disrupting the House on the Thakkar Commission report, which probed the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi.
In recent times, Parliament saw one of the worst disruptions during the December 2010 winter session, with protests over the alleged 2G scam. At least 6 percent of the work was recorded in the session.
dramatic scene again February 2014, When the UPA government brought the Andhra Pradesh Partition Bill. Congress MP Lagadpati Rajagopal evicted pepper spray And sprinkled in the house. The incident resulted in the hospitalization of three MPs.
An example of this is the aggression seen during the monsoon season in 2021. The opposition refused to back down and let the House run until the Modi government accepted its demand to discuss issues such as the Pegasus espionage controversy and repeal of agricultural laws.
There have been ruckus in both the houses in the past too. But parliamentary experts say the growing hostility inside and outside the House means that the process of discussion and debate is under attack like never before, when the Treasury Bench and the opposition finally settled through dialogues. Will resolve differences.
Now the two sides rarely interact, which shows a corrupt politics.
Remember the old times when veteran opposition MPs like Inderjit Gupta and Bhupesh Gupta showed their oratory skills and solid reasoningThe government will bow to their demands.
Former Lok Sabha Secretary General PDT Acharya recalled the relationship between Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “Inside the House, Vajpayee was one of the staunchest critics of Nehru. With his strong eloquence, there were many occasions when Vajpayee blew up the government on one issue or the other. But he did not keep any enmity outside the House. There was mutual respect. He’s missing now.”
Acharya says that the enmity between the Treasury Bench and the opposition is only increasing now and is not good for parliamentary democracy.
Thoughts are personal.
(edited by Prashant)