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Not a Day Too Soon
Speaking to an audience at the City of London
in December 1930, Churchill claimed that if the British left the
sub-continent, then India will fall back quite rapidly through
the centuries into the barbarism and privations of the Middle
Ages.. Well, we have proved him wrong. We have not only survived
as a pulsating democracy, we are well on our way to become a
super-power.
Yet, all is not well. The most important
symbol and tool of democracy is the parliamentary system. When
Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister, he used not only to
attend the sessions of both the Houses regularly, but used to
listen to, with rapt attention what the opposition had to say.
He respected the views of the parties opposed to the Congress.
And, that was a time when he had absolute majority. There was
none to question his decisions. Yet, he was humble. He used to
even enjoy the sharp and very unpleasant cartoons that appeared
in the Shankar's weekly. In fact, Nehru used to admire and
relish some of the caricatures that made fun of him. But, that
was Nehru.
Things are different now. The frequent
interruptions and slogan shouting in the Parliament and the
State Assemblies cannot do much credit to those institutions.
Nor do they augur well for the future of our democracy. Such
happenings can erode the faith of the people in them. The single
most important issue of concern today is the decreasing
credibility of legislatures as institutions capable of
delivering public good and contributing to effective formulation
of laws and public policy. This is precisely what our
Vice-President Mohammed Hamid Ansari said on Monday. He is also
the Chairman of the Rajy sabha. His clarion call for a review of
their functioning could not have come a day too soon.
The instrumentalities at the disposal of our
legislatures have either been blunted or become dysfunctional.
He said that the number of Rajya Sabha sittings has come down
from an annual average of 90.5 in 1952-61 to 71.3 in 19992-'01,
a decline of 20 per cent. Similarly, there is a decline in the
sittings of the Lok Sabha as well. This indicates the
quantitative decline. Let us not venture into the qualitative
aspect. Unless there are high quality deliberations in our
legislatures, they cannot discharge their responsibility to the
electorate. About the violation of behavioural norms by members,
the less said the better.
It is satisfying and comforting that our
leaders at the highest level have initiated steps to restore to
our legislatures, the dignity and decorum that they once had, so
that they can play their crucial role in our democracy.
HR
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