Legislative overreach

Nine MPs,from several parties,have filed notices with the presiding officers of their Houses accusing various people associated with Anna Hazare’s agitation of violating the privileges of Parliament. Those named in the notices include Kiran Bedi,Prashant Bhushan,Arvind Kejriwal and even actor Om Puri. While many would agree that much of what was said from the stage at the Ramlila Maidan was disrespectful of democratic politics,serving breach-of-privilege notice on those saying those words does not reflect a mature,liberal polity. At this time of strain,especially,Parliament must be seen to be above petty point-scoring with those who would seek to demean or undermine it. It is fortunate,therefore,that the presiding officers of both Houses have not chosen to act on the petitions,immediately; it allows tempers to cool. Nor does it appear the petitions are more than a few individual,offended MPs: political parties have not thrown their weight behind them,and the BJP,at least,has chosen to prudently dissociate itself.

This moment should therefore be viewed as an occasion to examine the very nature of parliamentary privilege itself. The time has come,foreseen by the framers of the Constitution — and reiterated at the time of the 44th Amendment,in 1978 — to clearly codify what privileges members of Parliament enjoy. When the Constitution was adopted,the appropriate articles chose to refer to the (largely unwritten) privileges enjoyed by members of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom; an argument that this would be inappropriate for a free country’s constitution was shot down by the point that similar articles existed in the laws of Canada and Australia. Since then,however,the discourse,codification and jurisprudence on privilege has moved on in the rest of the Commonwealth. The time has come for India,too,to take these steps.

Historically,parliamentary privilege existed not to exalt but to protect MPs; not to insulate them from words,but to secure them from external efforts to prevent them from performing their functions as representatives. To persist with an interpretation that prevents MPs from being the subject even of ill-informed criticism is illiberal. Parliament should,once again,restore to itself the status of being above the fray — by finally discussing,and setting in stone,its own privileges.