Whither legislative morality in times of tug of war in Parliament?
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, August 2: Lok Sabha Om Birla is said to be miffed at the sequence of events taking place in the Lower House of Parliament. He will not be coming to the Lok Sabha Chamber until treasury and Opposition benches mend their ways. The Rajya Sabha proceedings were marred with pandemonium even while the Upper House of Parliament passed a slew of legislations.
Birla skipped the proceedings of the Lok Sabha apparently miffed at the conduct of the MPs from the treasury and the Opposition benches. The Rajya Sabha saw passage of key legislations, including the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, without debate as the Opposition staged walkout to press for their demand for discussion on the issue of Manipur violence.
The Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, which the experts have warned of consequences of dilution of the strict provisions for the deemed forests accounting for 70 per cent of India’s green cover, got the nod of the Rajya Sabha without a debate. The Parliamentary logjam is now in an extended run, as the second half of the Budget session was also washed out. The Monsoon session of Parliament is also now nearly washed out, as the communication channel between the government and the Opposition remains frozen.
Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhand Joshi appears struggling to maintain even a minimum of communication with the Opposition members. While Union Minister for Defence Rajnath Singh had reportedly spoken to the Opposition leaders to solicit their cooperation for the smooth functioning of the Monsoon session of Parliament, ice refuses to be broken. While the first tenure of Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government was served well by the services of M Venkaiah Naidu as the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, as well as Arun Jaitely as the leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, their successors failed to wear their boots in the second tenure of the NDA government.
Convention leans on the practice that the “Opposition has say and the government has the way” in the running of the businesses of Parliament, the deepening of the adversarial relations between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress clearly appears to have marred Parliamentary functions. The government has also not helped the cause of the Chairs of the two Houses by rushing with heavy legislative businesses without creating the atmosphere of the normalcy in the two Houses. The bills are being rushed and approvals ensured in din.
While the Opposition served the no-confidence motion, the matter has been pushed to the last three days of the Monsoon session as the government makes intent clear that the bills will be passed in din with or without the participation of the Opposition MPs.
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