Back to schedule

Both Houses of Parliament did put up a struggle to transact scheduled business on Wednesday,before the presiding officers succumbed to what is now becoming the new normal: adjournment for the rest of the day. The BJP’s ire was targeted at Home Minister P. Chidambaram,and they asked for his resignation over police action against a rally of the party’s youth wing. In Parliament a day before,on Tuesday,the opposition had demanded the resignation of the governments at the Centre and in Delhi over the CAG report on the Commonwealth Games. Since the beginning of the session last week,that has been the way of it. Each day Parliament has appeared to be under siege,as the opposition’s subject of the day — 2G scam,land acquisition,price rise — is sought to be taken up to the exclusion of all else.

Parliament always involves an element of political theatre,and this session was expected to be highly charged. But parliamentary politics also demands a keen sense of proportion. Proportion,however,has thus far been abandoned altogether. The opposition clearly reckons that this is its best chance to test the government’s mid-term stability,and is intent on casting every issue as a grave crisis. The government has decided that assertiveness is the best form of offence,that to be seen to yield could be taken as a sign of nerves. The result is a default position of permanent siege,with Question Hour routinely sacrificed and the legislative agenda postponed serially.

That agenda is substantial. There is the backlog on account of the washed-out winter and truncated budget sessions. There is,also,a long list of bills listed for introduction,among them the contentious Lokpal bill. And,given the questions about land acquisition flaring up around the country,it was hoped that MPs would use the floor of the House to begin raising the issues the proposed amendment must negotiate. These are issues of grave importance and to address them responsibly debates must be nuanced. Nuance,however,cannot be found amidst all-or-nothing confrontations. The political class has to find a way of exiting this zero-sum gameplan,and get Parliament back to its normal rhythms. It is as easy as heeding the propriety of allowing Question Hour to function,of putting the government through the rigour of cross-examination that the daily exercise involves — and indeed,of being responsive to the opposition’s agenda,and conceding its demands for a debate. In this give-and-take lies not the makings of a deal,but the large-heartedness required for the legislature to regain its institutional heft.