Legislators are quick at claiming legislative privileges but forget that their behaviour in the August House also bears strict scrutiny. The Assembly and Parliament are the sacred grounds of democracy where language and decorum matter. The English language is known to be a language of great finesse and can add grace and dignity to what’s spoken. Alternatively, language can also be abused when the speaker is unable to take in his/her stride the verbal sparring in the House. What happened in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly on Wednesday is a blot on the annals of the House which has had legislators who have upheld the highest traditions of parliamentary behaviour, no matter how much they are provoked by questions and counter questions from the Opposition. It has been rightly stated that the Opposition in the House speaks on behalf of the people. If those in the Ruling party cannot maintain sang-froid when provoked they are perhaps in the wrong place. In disrespecting the Opposition, they are indirectly disrespecting the voice of the people who are supposed to be the masters in a democracy.
In a parliamentary democracy the legislature exercises full control over the executive or the Council of Ministers. Members have the right to put questions and supplementary questions to the Cabinet in the House. The Opposition can bring in a No-confidence motion, Adjournment Motion and Censure Motion against the Government if the situation so demands. Who else can correct the wrongdoings of the Government if not the Opposition? A No-confidence motion is not necessarily a coup for toppling the Government, hence to construe it as such shows lack of maturity of those in support of the ruling party. And for ruling party members to vent their rage against fellow legislators in the House is unwarranted. It speaks of the slow erosion of democratic values and respect for decorum. It is good to remember that those elected to the House are also called “leaders,” and leadership comes with a set of behavioral mores, not least of which is to desist from using slangs (unparliamentary language).
Several issues have been raised in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly in the last few days and they reveal the lapses of government and the breakdown of the law vis-à-vis the illegal extraction and transportation of coal amongst others which follows a clear modus-operandi and suggests the collusion of those in Government. Unless such improprieties are corrected, governance will be subverted. Those in the Opposition have a public duty to halt the corrosive corruption which has become a state-sponsored enterprise and is hastening Meghalaya’s descent into anarchy.
Finally, legislative privileges don’t come as a matter of right. They are earned, above all by the use of sanitized language.