Along Longkumer
Consulting Editor
The Speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar adjourned the House of the people on Wednesday, two days ahead of schedule. Except for the Finance Bills, no other legislation could be carried through and thereby making the present Lok Sabha one of the most unproductive in the country’s parliamentary history. The reason for the non-functioning of Parliament is known to one and all—the political divide between the Congress led UPA government on the one side and the BJP led NDA opposition parties on the other side. Those of the Left parties have also not been too kind to the Congress. One need not go into the details of various corruption charges leveled against the UPA government and also how the Opposition in response has been disrupting the legislative process. All in all it has been a time of complete disarray of our democratic set-up. Here, in such a situation, the political executive has not been able to govern. Similarly, important legislation has stagnated because Parliament has not been able to work or made non-functional due to hardening of positions on all sides. One may well ask the question as to who should be blamed for the state we are in. The sad truth about all that is going on in Indian politics right now has to do with only one thing—how to achieve power. And because of this constant urge to seize power, political parties have become irresponsible in their conduct.
Perhaps it will not be out of place here to say that democracy in India cannot be usurped by any one group, party or the different wings of government—executive, legislature and judiciary. Undemocratic governance or corruption, blind opposition and unwanted interference by each of the three organs respectively, are all bad for democracy. India claims for itself the tag of being the world’s largest democracy. What could probably be lacking though are maturity, civility and reasonableness of our political actors. And it is these characteristics that will bring about the quality that is required to make democracy not just big in numbers but also successful. Politics is not unique to India alone. Other countries also experience similar situation between the ruling party and opposition. However the institution of Parliament is never disrupted but rather any issue is talked and debated within the House. One will have to learn to work through dialogue, resolution and consensus and not what is happening to India’s Parliament—non-cooperation, confrontation and in the process not allowing any work to be done. Our Lok Sabha during the just concluded Budget session could have been more productive if only the political class had been more responsible in taking up the problems and concerns faced by the country, including corruption, food security, to name a few.
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