The recent violent attack on BJP MP Virendra Kumar, who sustained severe head injuries during an anti-encroachment drive on railway land in Madhya Pradesh, shocked the nation. Yet, at the same time there were voices privately gloating that not just this poor victim, but many more legislators deserve to be horse-whipped for, at the very least, not effectively carrying out their duties or, more likely, bringing misery to the masses by alleged acts of omission and commission.

Underpinning all this sentiment is the fundamental dichotomy between Constitutional intent and reality. Incremental disregard for statutory responsibility by legislators across the country has given way to personal agendas and divisive politics, the creation of private fiefdoms, the failure to understand existing legislation and, most shocking, the view that somehow everything can be “managed” by the legislator regardless of prevailing statute, bye-laws, convention, precedents and rules. If the legislator in the pursuit of building his or her own brand equity demonstrates such disregard for the spirit, let alone, the letter of the law, can they honestly expect anything better from the citizen?

While the role of a legislator was conceived as someone who would assess the needs of the people and assimilate these in the proceedings of the House to ensure rectification of earlier inappropriate legislation and the creation of effective new statutes, sadly the role has almost universally evolved into that of a social worker.

Elected as legislators, most get reduced to being little more than arbiters, pleading with the DC here, the SP there, endeavouring to redress injustices perpetrated on their electorate by an imperfect system. Legislators poke their noses into matters that in more functional and effective democracies would send them to jail.

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