The blame for disruption of Parliamentary proceedings lies squarely on the Modi government

Much noise is being made by some BJP leaders, including the PM himself, over ‘disruptions’ in Parliament. But they would do well to recall that the one man who was primarily responsible for disrupting Parliamentary proceeding was BJP patriarch L K Advani. After the BJP lost the 2009 Lok Sabha election, for which Advani was projected as the prime ministerial candidate by the party, he unabashedly resorted to the tactics of disrupting the proceedings of the House.

In fact, disruptions acquired such a major dimension and the number of sittings of both Houses of the Parliament had gone down drastically to such a level that none other than the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had expressed concern over the efficacy of the pillar of democracy that celebrated the 60th year of its existence in 2010.

It is not that Parliamentary proceedings were not disrupted during the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties, during the Congress rule. The House had many opposition stalwarts like Rajnarayan, Madhu Limaye, Ram Manohar Lohia, Piloo Modi, A K Gopalan, Hiren Mukherjee, Nath Pai and others, but they did not believe in the politics of disrupting the proceeding of the House just to give a bad name to the Prime Minister.

Veteran politicians and political commentators have noted that debates during the 1950s and 1960s used to be livelier and Parliamentary disruption was not resorted to for expressing dissent or opposition. It is corroborated by official statistics that the proportion of time lost to disruption has been increasing. The loss of time, just below 10 per cent during the 10th Lok Sabha (1991-1996), reached a record high of 40 per cent during the 15th Lok Sabha (2009-2014). By this time, the BJP had emerged as the main opposition party.

Parliamentary disruptions have been defended by the opposition as a means to counter the arrogance of the ruling dispensation (referring to the “tyranny of the majority") and as a means to highlight matters of public interest.

It is worth mentioning that in January 2011, late BJP leader and then Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had said, “Parliament’s job is to conduct discussions. But many a time, Parliament is used [by the government] to ignore issues and in such situations, obstruction of Parliament is in the favour of democracy. Therefore, Parliamentary obstruction is not undemocratic.”

Now, when both houses of Parliament are witnessing disruptions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed anger. He has criticised the opposition for disrupting the House proceedings, tearing papers and making "derogatory" remarks on the way Bills have been passed, and accused it of insulting the legislature and the Constitution.

This posture certainly does not behove to his stature. Being the leader of the House, he should have behaved more in a rational manner. But the idea of introspection is alien to Modi, which is why it would be naïve to expect that he would do some amount of introspection as to why the opposition was not allowing the House to function.

Modi’s anger is more for public consumption and to bolster the morale of his party’s cadre and members. He is not worried at all at the disruption. It is a fact that ever since he became Prime Minister, he has not allowed the House to discharge its duties in a proper manner. He has been unresponsive to the opposition voice. Under the circumstances, he has no moral right to accuse the opposition of disrupting the House now.

Let us confine ourselves to two issues. First, the passage of the three farm Bills by the Parliament. Since the matter was of immense importance, Modi could have had the matter debated threadbare in the House. But he ignored the opposition. This reflected his contempt for the opposition and his arrogance.

Second is the use of Pegasus to spy on the people who are opposed to him. Though he has been noncommittal in accepting that he ordered spying, there are credible reports that his government acquired the spyware in 2017 during his visit to Israel. In the prevailing situation, it is his responsibility to come clean on the issue. If he was not involved, why he is scared of ordering a probe?

For the last ten days, the opposition has been raising the issue and demanding a probe into the matter. It is the Modi govt’s ostrich like attitude that is responsible for the disruption of the House proceedings. Deputy Leader of Congress in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said on July 27, “It is not correct to say that we are being obstructionist. The opposition is doing its duty and the Prime Minister is being undemocratic.”

TMC leader Derek O'Brien tweeted, "In the first 10 days, Modi-Shah rushed through and passed 12 Bills at an average time of UNDER SEVEN MINUTES per Bill. Passing legislation or making papri chaat!"

The opposition has stalled Parliament's proceedings demanding a discussion on the Pegasus snooping row, but instead of conceding to the demand, the Modi government has been dismissing it as an inconsequential issue.

The fact of the matter is that the socio-political situation has gone beyond Modi’s control. Though he has turned sections of the media subservient to him, which leave no stone unturned to defend him, the people of the country have come to see the real face of Modi hidden behind a carefully-manufactured façade.

The fact is that during his rule, there has been substantial decline in the effectiveness of Parliament as an institution of accountability and oversight. He and his government turned the instruments that Parliament can use for accountability — motions on the floor, oversight powers, the committee system — dysfunctional. Important economic issues which in a normal course ought to have been discussed on the floor of the House in the greater interest of the country and its people seem to have been finalised behind the closed doors of corporate houses. This eroded the power of Parliament.

The most severe damage that Modi has inflicted on the Parliament is restructuring its regulatory framework with more powers being delegated to non-elected institutions. This has diminished the importance of Parliament. He has also given the executive more powers.

If at all Modi govt cares about sanctity of the Parliament, it must disclose all materials and documents about the authorisation and orders relating to the use of Pegasus. It should also put in place a judicial oversight mechanism to deal with any complaints on illegal breaches of privacy and hacking and punish all government officials responsible for such breaches.

Journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta has rightly pointed out in his petition in the Supreme Court that he has strong reasons to believe that he has been subjected to a deeply intrusive surveillance and hacking by the Government of India or some other third party. His rights to privacy and access to information and his freedom as a journalist have been violated.

If the farmers’ agitation injected a sense of unity of purpose among the opposition parties, the Pegasus controversy has strengthened the urge for a united offensive. Modi, by his refusal to order a probe or concede the demand for debates in Parliament, is responsible for lowering of the image of India and its democratic institution across the globe and denigrating the stature of the Parliament.

(IPA Service)

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