Arun Shourie criticises BJP for not letting Parliament work

Strongly disapproving the BJP's strategy to stall the monsoon session of Parliament over the coal blocks allotment controversy, former telecom minister Arun Shourie has said that such disruptions were counter-productive as they greatly harmed the country. Instead, the main opposition party could have used the session to analyse the allotments and convince the country that it is a responsible group that can govern the country better.

Frequent disruptions have brought Parliament on par with state assemblies and this trend has over the last 20 years played out like the "elongated funeral rites of the parliamentary system", said Shourie, who has distanced himself from the BJP. "Whenever you paralyse it, whatever be the issue, you are inflicting great harm to the country," Shourie told Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express, in an interview for NDTV's 'Walk the Talk' programme.

"The institution is getting reduced to what state assemblies are like. In state assemblies, the sessions are now of 4-5 days each. So, if you see the effective days of Parliament, it has been already reduced to a level of state assemblies. Can a country like India be run like that?" Shourie asked. "Whatever be the issue," the opposition should adopt methods that will strengthen institutions like Parliament, he said.

Shourie said he did not find merit in the BJP's argument that the strategy to disrupt Parliament was a one-off case to bring the coal block allotment controversy to the notice of voters. "One session actually casts a shadow on the institution of Parliament forever," Shourie said, lamenting the trend of disrupting Parliament in the name of one issue or the other. "Even from the narrow point of view, it is counter productive, in my view...for 15-20 years now, we are attending the elongated funeral rites of the parliamentary system."

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