Let the voice of opposition be heard
Editor,
Recently 13 Lok Sabha members and one Rajya Sabha member were expelled for the remaining part of the session for creating ruckus in both houses of the Parliament. It is general parliamentary practice that any statement of the government is made in Parliament and not outside it but here Amit shah made the statement on what had happened in and outside the House in an interview to a TV channel and not before the members of both Houses of the Parliament.
Ram Manohar Lohia a veteran Samajwadi leader once said when there are no demonstrations on the roads it means there is no democracy because demonstrations are the signals that democracy is alive otherwise there will be chaos in the country. To attain independence from the British thousands of Indian were on the roads. It is a historical fact that after the failure of first independence war of 1857 it took 90 years to attain freedom.
Due to the breach of security, parliamentarians were demonstrating in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha but were suspended because of that and in case of Rajya Sabha members they are referred to Privileges Committee and asked to submit the report within two months. If the punishment is harsh then it will go down in the history of Rajya Sabha that a member is being punished for raising a genuine demand and PM as well as home minister had accepted it is a serious breach of security. It is surprising why the members had been suspended for the remaining part of the session under the pretext of misconduct when they were only seeking a statement from either the Home Minister or Prime Minister on last week’s security breach. This indicates the government’s lack of respect for the Opposition-which is only doing its job when it asks it to fulfil its function of accountability. .
During the regime of Rajiv Gandhi opposition members resigned from Parliament to press their demands on Bofors. On the issue of Shah Bano only one member resigned from Parliament to press his demand and to show resentment against the decision of the Rajiv Gandhi government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the Lok Sabha and Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh had assured the Opposition before the start of the current session that the Government is willing to discuss all issues. A security breach in the Lok Sabha is an issue in and of itself, one that the government itself calls a “grave national concern.” Hence it was expected from the government that they should follow their own commitment to discuss all issues but now the question arises as to why the government is reluctant to have discussion in both houses of Parliament.
It is true that the security of the Parliament complex is looked after by the Lok Sabha secretariat and Speaker Om Birla has ordered a full-scale review of the arrangements. There is no doubt that the review will identify the gaps in the system and plug them; but that does not mean that the members, and the nation at large, have no right to seek an explanation from the Government. This is also desirable in a country which is the world’s largest democracy.
As it stands today, the six people arrested in the case come from six states, and they had been planning their operation for over a year. This shows the malafide intention of all accused. It appears that the government thinks that the nation has no right to know how it runs the intelligence apparatus which failed to nail such a plot. The youngsters who nonetheless acted in a violent way may not qualify to be called terrorists nor was it their intention to strike terror in the heart of the common man but to call attention to pressing concerns of unemployment, inflation murders in Manipur, but the fact is that their moves got successfully executed under the watch of a government led by a party that prides itself as a champion of national security. This is alarming indeed.
The Party and the Government owes it to the people of India to explain how such a long-duration conspiracy went unnoticed. Also, what is the government planning to do next so that a repeat of this break-in by people with more inimical designs does not reoccur. The country wants assurance from the Government that such acts would be handled properly and there would be no laxity on their part.
The Government may feel that the Opposition is agitating disproportionately to the event but democratic norms mandate that it takes upon itself the job of explaining contentious matters. The Opposition is acting as per its mandate.
Unfortunately, Parliament has been witnessing unruly scenes for quite some time now. It is bizarre that in some instances even the Treasury benches disrupted the proceedings in the recent past as in the case of the BSP MP against whom unparliamentary language was used by a member of the ruling party.
It is important that the government becomes realistic about fulfilling the people’s right to information. Running away from its duties or expelling Opposition members from the House cannot resolve anything. Rather it will aggravate the situation. It is the bounden duty of treasury benches to pacify the members of the Opposition in Parliament.
Yours etc.,
Yash Pal Ralhan,
Via email