Temple of democracy: A battle zone

Col (retd) PM Goswami

(The writer can be reached at goswami.pabitra@yahoo.com)

The title does sound bizarre, but the intelligent observers will swear by it as the naked truth. In all fairness how can the temple of democracy, "The Parliament" be the War Zone? Unfortunately, what we have been witnessing for the last couple of years is a free-for-all verbal duel between the ruling and the opposition parties without any concern for the decorum of the highest institution of the country. MPs invariably use this platform to spit venoms at each other. It is an ever-active war zone. At this rate, the parliamentary sessions are becoming redundant when No legitimate business hours are possible. Ritually parliamentary sessions are convened to discuss at length various aspects of governance and further measures required for improvement. But alas! Leave aside discussions at length; the members refuse to even commence the discussion on some pretext or the other. The ongoing parliamentary session is a live example. It has been a washout.

The MPs represent the public from various constituencies of the nation. Geographically, India is a vast country with diverse societies, languages, cultures, habits etc. So differences are bound to be there which need to be streamlined to achieve development and our often spoken Unity in Diversity. If the MPs do not act as the responsible guardians of the nation, it is bound to disintegrate which could then be a little too late to rectify. History remains a mute witness to our downfall in the past. Of late, it has been a pattern before all parliamentary sessions to select a few odd relevant/irrelevant agenda points by the opposition parties to corner the ruling party, yet do not allow any discussions till the end. The speaker on the chair becomes irrelevant and helpless. He is unable to control the ruckus and logjams in the House. Hence resorts to adjourning the sessions till the day ends. The common practice is to shout at each other relentlessly calling names and passing comments which are unbecoming of a parliamentarian. At times besides damaging public properties during the scuffle, MPs/MLAs have been seen snatching official papers from the minister's hands and tearing them off, indeed a childish and disgraceful behaviour. The scene of the Rajya Sabha MP standing on the table and hurling the Rule Book towards the Speaker's chair on 10 August 2021 duly cheered by a few other MPs was nothing short of blatant hooliganism. It's brazen misconduct. We the conscious citizens feel ashamed and seriously condemn such substandard behaviour. The extremely poor state of business hours during each session is an indication of apparent loopholes in the rules of the House. It is indeed a war zone without weapons. Direct telecast of the sessions, more often than not embarrass the educated public inducing questions about the relevance of our temple of democracy. Misconstrued agendas of the Opposition parties more often than not are planned to derail the government's plans and proposals at any cost. However, the government is duty-bound to ensure development and progress perforce resorts to passing the bills within a couple of minutes without any discussion. But is this practice fair in the interests of the nation which spends such huge money on the MPs? Their privileges and perks are far too many to be ignored vis-a-vis the output. MPs and MLAs appear to have developed a sense of immunity irrespective of their misconduct. Unfortunately, they make laws and break laws at will. The most important question which the MPs need to answer is why they refuse to understand the non-relevance of holding a session without any discussion. Even the state assemblies are no less. They also resort to such a pattern, but fortunately not at such a large scale as in the parliament.

A quick analysis of the functioning of the country's Temple of Democracy as enumerated above generates few very valid questions in the public domain

1. Should our Constitution undergo serious and major amendments to cope up with the changing situations and demands of the environment? With three years under its belt, the present government under PM Modi would probably be the most suited to take on this gigantic task of amending the Constitution. Sooner the better. The majority of the citizens will undoubtedly offer moral support and wholehearted cooperation.

2. Should both the Houses and the Assemblies have an additional neutral authority, probably a Governor-General who will be solely responsible for due functioning and maintaining decorum during the sessions? It has to be a constitutional authority and his ruling is accepted as final. Detailed duties could be worked out subsequently.

3. Should a separate charter of Dos and Don'ts be made compulsory regarding discipline and code of conduct? The charter must be compulsorily signed by the MPs/MLAs before each session.

4. Instead of direct elections, should we resort to a process of Selection and then Election of our MPs/MLAs? Selection tests could be conducted in line with the selection tests for Armed Forces officers/IAS/IPS/IFS entries. This is likely to result in the availability of educated politicians as also will abolish the dynastic trend. The dynastic trend, muscle power, money power and pseudo sense of democracy are the most damaging constituents in the present process of election. Details of the selection and then election as suggested above could be worked out later by a selected panel of experts if the proposal is accepted in principle. However, it can be safely assumed that majority of the politicians will not agree to this. The risks are far too many for their liking. So it has to be initiated and forced through some other means. Maybe through active social media, nationwide debates and discussions at all levels, public participation, public awareness, public pressure, involvement of the judiciary etc. It has to be a relentless and dedicated effort. Or else, misdeeds of the politicians will continue to be just drawing-room discussions as ever and we remain as mute helpless spectators.

5. Should we demand mass-scale amendments to the rules and procedures for the conduct of the parliamentary and Assembly sessions?

6. Since management of vote banks play a key role in electing politicians, should we not rethink the efficacy of the existing voting system? Examples of unsuitable MPs/MLAs getting elected by the apparent loopholes in the election process are plenty in the public domain. The primary job of a politician is to provide good governance. No rocket science is required. Selfless commitment, sincerity and honesty of highest standard, hardworking, adequate management skills, pro-public concerns, visionary and thorough gentlemen are probably the few must qualities for a successful and good politician. Democracy provides the right to franchise to all illegible citizens of the country. Notwithstanding this right, it is time we accepted the fact that a large chunk of our rural population does not understand the ultimate value of their votes. More often than not, in the present scenario, these poor voters fall easy prey to the acts of appeasement and freebies by the politicians. This has given rise to an unrelenting flow of freebies at the cost of taxpayers' money. It is indeed an alarming trend. Whether one votes or not, by being a genuine citizen, he or she will be illegible for all government welfare measures. So why not amend the eligibility criteria of the voters who will put value to their votes and the nation will then be assured of well capable politicians. Ideally, the Election Commission should work on digital voting instead of physical voting. Physical election rallies must be stopped. Resort to canvassing through electronic media only. This practice will result in curtailing law-and-order problems, abolish deployment of CAPF, avoid huge expenditures from the state exchequers, avoid loss of innocent lives etc.

The nation is to celebrate the 75th year of independence in just a couple of days. The House needs to be put for smooth and effective governance. Anguish and the concerns of the conscious citizens need to be conveyed to the higher-ups. Challenges are far too many from within as well as the aggressive neighbours. Afghanistan is soon likely to become a thorn in the flesh and create fresh problems. Some strong measures have to be undertaken to bring in changes in our Constitution and the political system. The nation is undoubtedly progressing by leaps and bounds on all fronts, but with a lot of hick-ups. We now stand tall on international platforms as well. Our voices and views are recognised and respected all over the world unlike in the past. So a concerted effort by all concerned is indeed required to get rid of the self-created Battle Zone and remain united to pursue our goal to shine within and in international forums. A golden era in near future must be the motto of the nation and better times will follow.