Logo

Logo

Obduracy & obstruction

Neither the Prime Minister nor the Home Minister have appeared in the Houses or expressed grief over the senseless violence and the needless deaths.

Obduracy & obstruction

"But we will not be scared. We will not be scared to demand a discussion on the violence in Delhi, we will raise the issue continuously," Congress MP Tarun Gogoi said as the Congress leaders raised slogans demanding the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (Photo: Twitter/@INCIndia)

Four days after Parliament resumed its budget session after a 15-day recess, India’s lawmakers have not yet got down to discussing the terrible riots in North-East Delhi that took place in the end of February and, according to latest reports, claimed over 50 lives. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Home Minister have appeared in the Houses or expressed grief over the senseless violence and the needless deaths.

In the face of the Opposition’s insistence on a full-fledged discussion on the Delhi riots, the government expressed its readiness to hold a debate but said it will happen only after Holi. The unrelenting obduracy of the government over the timing of the debate and the decision to suspend seven Congress MPs for the rest of the session as well as call for disqualification of one (Gaurav Gogoi) in the absence of the Speaker, who has stayed away from the Lok Sabha for three days hurt by the disruptions by placard-waving MPs rushing to the well, appears misplaced.

After all the BJP when it was in Opposition successfully stalled an entire session of Parliament over the 2G scam and justified it as legitimate tactics in a parliamentary democracy. Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, two stalwarts of the party, now unfortunately no more, were at the vanguard of this parliamentary disruption. Now that the roles have been reversed, such disruptions are conveniently dubbed as against the national interest.

Advertisement

The Congress lawmakers’ ire was also provoked by the MP of a BJP ally making tasteless remarks about Sonia and Rahul Gandhi but the ruling party did not think it fit to rebuke the offending member. A discussion on the Delhi riots is all the more necessary because as each day passes new video footage and survivors’ stories point increasingly to the culpability of members of the ruling dispensation whose hate speeches were the trigger for the communal flare-up.

A fair and impartial inquiry is the need of the hour but what is also necessary is for the voice of the Opposition to be heard. A brute majority does not entitle a government to ride roughshod over the ethics of parliamentary democracy. Debate and discussion is the essence of such a set-up and till a few years ago India prided itself on the quality of its parliamentary debates. Hasty passage of bills without due discussion and deliberation is another feature that has tarnished the Indian Parliament’s stellar reputation.

The difference between a dictatorship and a democracy is the ability to listen to dissenting voices and accept constructive criticism of one’s policies. The Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi even 45 years later evokes revulsion and politicians have repeatedly vowed not to repeat that anathema to democracy. Let us not be seen treading anywhere near that path but instead encourage a spirit of bipartisanship so that issues do not fester but are discussed dispassionately in the temple of democracy.

Advertisement