Trampling the Temple of Democracy

The MPs responsible for such disruptions should be made to pay for it. Or let them pool in money to jointly pay for the number of hours of disruption. At least Parliament will earn handsomely to compensate for its losses

"In a democracy, there is bound to be vigorous debate among divergent viewpoints in Parliament. But the vitality of democracy also demands discipline, constructive approach and a readiness to contribute to consensus-building and adherence to rules."

- Former Prime Minister 'Bharat Ratna' Atal Bihari Vajpayee

The day Narendra Modi bowed down and touched his forehead to the steps of Parliament House, we came to realise the importance the 144-pillared circular edifice, which the Prime Minister-designate then described as the "Temple of Democracy", holds for this republic called India, that is Bharat, and its future. Hopefuls turned believers thinking that the spirit of democracy will now turn a new leaf to create a new history worth mentioning.

Because, prior to that, we use to consider the Parliament as a "club house" of corrupt politicos whom we so naively elected to run the country, where these representatives keep fighting with each other over 'who' became rich and 'why', rather than 'how', by defrauding their own electors, and where they abuse their opponents by using all kinds of 'unparliamentary' words, throw darts at each other and crowd the well of the House more than their assigned Benches.

And we thought now that this "club house" has turned into a "Temple of Democracy", things will fall in line and descent things will henceforth happen such as the esteemed "parliamentarians" will behave themselves, the Houses will return to order, the business of legislation will run smoothly, the voice of Opposition will be heard patiently, Opposition will also show magnanimity in appreciating the good work of the incumbent government, etc.

But alas! Hardly we realised that the ecosystem that has been formed over the past 75 years cannot be weaned away overnight. No sooner the new dispensation took over, the din in the House only got shriller by the day. All those things we thought would not happen anymore started happening all again. But who is to be blamed? To reach a conclusion, let us analyse who benefits from this entire hullabaloo.

Well, in a democracy, the Opposition has a right to oppose the government if and when they feel that the latter is doing something wrong. They can put forth their views in Parliament as strongly as they can while maintaining all decency and staying within the permissible limits of House decorum. If they feel their voice is not heard by the Treasury Benches, they can go to the extent of even boycotting the proceedings of a particular session or two.

But when the Opposition creates ruckus and stalls proceedings for days and weeks together, it means they want to be heard outside the House, i.e. by the media. But the Opposition will obviously opt for it only when a favourable media is waiting in the wings to amplify their voice outside the House. If they are not going to get good optics, why would they do so? It is as simple as that!

In the present scenario, had the Congress and other Opposition parties not been confident enough of getting good publicity from a media favourable to them, they would not have done the drama of disrupting the House for so long. Now, the debate over the issues the Opposition wants to raise is happening everywhere other than in the House. This 'Opposition tyranny' is not only undermining the august institution, it is even jeopardising democracy as a whole.

It is interesting to note that the Opposition leaders first wanted a discussion in the House over the Adani-Hindenberg row and demanded that a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) be formed to look into the issue without realising that there is no such provision under the rules governing the Parliament proceedings where such a panel can be instituted to look into the allegations made against a corporate house by a foreign company.

Now, when the ruling party wants a discussion in the House over the anti-India statements made by Rahul Gandhi on a foreign land making a mockery of our democracy, the same Opposition leaders are running away from it realising well that they are wrong on both the counts. They are not ready to join the proceedings and wish the whole session to be washed away. This shows that they were not serious about their demand and they are resorting to 'fancy politicking' to keep themselves in media glare.

But the question is: at what and whose cost? The obvious answer is: at the cost of tax-payers' money running into hundreds of crores, going by the simple "cost of running Parliament per minute" logic. According to an estimate done 10 years ago, the cost of parliamentary disruption comes to about Rs 2.5 lakh per minute. If we add a sobre 20% to it for cost escalation, it comes to around Rs 2 crore per hour. Now, we can imagine how much money is wasted just due to the adamant attitude of a few Opposition leaders.

One solution to such wanton wastage is, making the MPs responsible for such disruption pay for it. There is a bright precedent in this context, though voluntary. Piqued over long disruptions in 2017, Baijayant 'Jai' Panda, then a Biju Janata Dal MP who is with the ruling BJP now, had announced that he "will not accept the salary for the month of November and December since no welfare work for the people of the country has been done by Parliament in these two months."

This can be turned into a parliamentary rule now and make the members pay up. Or let the Opposition parties pool in money to jointly pay for the number of hours of disruption. This way at least, Parliament will earn handsome revenue to compensate its losses. Else, Opposition's 'rabble-rousers' and other leaders must realise that the tax-payers will show them their place when their time to decide will come.

Hope that better sense prevails in the Opposition camp and they behave responsibly using the spirit of consensus and compromise to ensure a deliberative Parliament, as former Prime Minister 'Bharat Ratna' Atal Bihari Vajpayee had dreamt of.