The House wins

That speech was deftly unravelled by opposition leaders — the BJP’s Arun Jaitley called the entire exercise a failure of statecraft,saying what should have been handled by imaginative politics had now been reduced to a quibble over the penal code,that the immediate question was not the primacy of Parliament but the expression of legitimate dissent. While making it clear the BJP did not support Hazare’s charter,he spoke of the need for political artfulness to deal with it,rather than the limited lens of law and order,or political leadership “hiding behind men in uniform”. Sushma Swaraj also ripped into the government,asking why the matter was now being cast as Hazare’s problem with Parliament at large,when the opposition was conspicuously left out of the joint drafting committee earlier. Others like Lalu Prasad spoke,cheered on by MPs across party lines,of how nobody could dictate to Parliament,and of the serious issues at stake with the Anna Hazare movement. The opposition banded together as equal members to calmly discuss the dangers in street action and defend the House,as well as grill the government on its recent decision-making. Unlike shallow studio chatter or the absolutism of Hazare’s supporters,this Parliament debate gave us a glimpse of deliberative democracy at its best.