Troublesome 4th D stands out, not 3Ds

For the past three years, President Pranab Mukherjee has not lost any opportunity to remind parliamentarians and legislators that democracy should comprise three “Ds” — Debate, Dissent and Discussion — and not the fourth “D” — Disruption.

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Even as late as May this year, in his address at the special session of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly, the President reminded the gathering of this tenet. The sage advice came not just from a person who holds the highest constitutional position in the country, but also one of the longest-serving parliamentarians in the country.

Yet, by all available indications, the monsoon session of Parliament, commencing on July 21, is anticipated to have enough turbulence to cause frequent disruptions that could well result in little or no business being transacted.

The reason for this sombre prediction is not based on any political soothsaying but the storm clouds gathering on issues ranging from the Lalit Modi revelations linked to Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, to the Vyapam scandal in which the Madhya Pradesh government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan finds itself embroiled.

The Congress party, that is leading the Opposition charge on both these issues, has dropped enough hints that unless the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi take some strong action (read removal) against those who are in the line of fire, it cannot be “business as usual”.

In the parliamentary calendar, the monsoon session holds a special place since it is a time when the government hopes to get clearances for its legislative agenda. Coming as it does after the budget session when much of the energies and time are spent on discussion and dissecting the manner in which the government wants to spend public funds, the monsoon session offers a window for pushing other Bills.

The Opposition could be pinch-hitting the government on the Lalit Modi and Vyapam issues but there are other unresolved pending issues in the law-making grinder — the contentious land Bill, the far-reaching Goods and Services Tax Bill, the real estate regulation Bill and a few others.

The Congress, that enjoys numerical superiority in the Rajya Sabha as compared to the BJP, has been leveraging its strength in the Upper House and has at times made up for the inadequate presence in the Lok Sabha to flex its muscles.

Ever since the Lalit Modi episode became public, the Congress has been seeking answers from the government and mocking Prime Minister Modi for choosing to reserve his comment on the developments.

For the BJP, that used to jeer at former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his “monumental silence” when charges of corruption against some of his ministerial colleagues flew around, the criticism has come back and hit it like a boomerang.

Where does disruption figure?

Over the last three decades, fractious politics and majority hold have resulted in Parliament witnessing tumultuous scenes, often resulting in adjournment and washout of the proceedings. The Opposition feels that unless pressure is exerted on the executive through stalling Parliament, the government of the day will not listen.

The trend could be traced to the infamous Bofors scandal during the Rajiv Gandhi government. After the Swedish radio reported allegations of kickbacks in the gun deal, the Opposition led by the BJP demanded resignation of the Prime Minister and did not allow Parliament to function for some 45 days. Towards the end, the entire Opposition resigned in protest, leading to the then Finance Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh becoming a rebel and later the Prime Minister of a coalition government in the ensuing general elections.

Since then, cases of disruption have become more pronounced in Parliament and at times in some state Assemblies. Is it a sign that the Opposition makes up for its inadequate numbers to troop to the well of the House to make a political statement?

In his May speech at Dehradun, the President reminded the Assembly that the “cardinal principle of effective functioning of the parliamentary system is that the majority will rule and minority will oppose, expose and if possible, depose. However, the minority must accept the decisions of the majority while the majority must respect the views of the minority”.

In the current Lok Sabha where the BJP has a majority of its own, the House saw a decent 90-day sitting, passage of 55 government Bills and sat late to make up for the time lost due to disruptions to clear pending legislation.

Both in the 14th and 15th Lok Sabhas, when the BJP was in the Opposition, one of the biggest casualties was the passage of the Union Budget with little or no debate at all. Hundreds of crores of taxpayers’ money was allocated by the government of the day and the budget passed without debate.

Of course, the discerning can argue that the standing committees did a due diligence check on demands for grants, but such parliamentary oversight remained limited to members on respective panels and disruptions prevented other members from making any meaningful intervention.

There are any number of resolutions and recommendations made by parliamentary bodies suggesting that members conduct themselves in a manner that does not disrupt proceedings, but it has remained more in letter than in spirit.

Reasons behind disruptions

Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who is also Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, perhaps diagnosed the reasons behind disruptions. In his address on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Kerala Legislative Assembly at Thiruvananthapuram in September, 2013, he said: “In the meantime, and notwithstanding solemn commitments, time continues to be lost in disruptions and at the expense of listed business both of accountability and of legislation. These disruptions take place with the knowledge, and at the instance of political parties and their leaderships and are undertaken to (a) attract public attention, (b) force the executive to undertake the course or action proposed by them, (c) demonstrate their ability to logjam the functioning of the legislature.”

Referring to rules to run the House, he went on to state that the “unfortunate reality today is that these rules of procedure are being violated brazenly and with impunity. Forgotten is the simple truth, applicable to all citizens including legislators, that rules are to be observed, not discarded or subverted”.

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