The question has been asked repeatedly in recent
years, but never satisfactorily answered. It was raised yet again over the last
few days: what purpose was served by keeping Parliament paralysed when normal
life remained disrupted as a result of the sarkari-created cash calamity?

The Opposition — which was by no means the sole
culprit of the disruption — did enough to garner the bold headlines, but in
reality doing so ensured that the government was off the hook. Thus negated was
that basic principle of parliamentary democracy, the legislature holding the
executive accountable. There were tactical infirmities in the game plan — the
Opposition demand for a discussion in the Lok Sabha followed by a vote made
limited sense since it is short of numbers.

It does boast more favouable numbers in the Rajya
Sabha, but there the squabble was over the absence of the Prime Minister,
clearly an ego-hassle. For the folk troubled by having to wait long hours in
queues for access to their own money were hoping that some relief would be
squeezed out of an insensitive government by a vigilant Opposition, it mattered
little who would make the announcement that eased their hardships.

To be fair, the common man was uplifted by the focus
on his plight during the six hours of debate on the opening day of the Rajya
Sabha session, only to be left dismayed when the Opposition resorted to
obsolete tactics that actually reduced the pressure on the finance ministry and
banking officials to perform more effectively. That a string of “side-scraps”
broke out, and inconsequential political squabbling took over, further eroded
the people’s faith in the parliamentary system.

Adding to the citizens’ disappointment was the petty
one-upmanship of Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal that proved that even the
cash crunch did not forge Opposition solidarity.

It would not be easy to recall a parallel in recent
times of the citizen being treated with such utter contempt by the government,
that too when in principle there was much initial approval of its action.

The refusal of the Prime Minister, finance minister,
their officials and sycophants to accept that they had grossly miscalculated
the fall-out of the demonetisation exercise hurts even more than the impact of
the cash crunch that has shaken trade and commerce as seldom before. Folk were
left wondering how the BJP would have acted had it been in the Opposition and
the government of the day had floated such an anti-corruption move: would the
issue have been taken to the streets? Unfortunately, a non-functional
Parliament has meant that Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley & Co. were not
“forced” to explain their several shortcomings. The Opposition, as much as the
government, let the people down. 

–Editorial