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Storm after calm
There can be no democracy if the opposition is unable to perform
its functions fearlessly. When it discharges its duty properly,
the preservation of not only democracy, but also our freedom is
assured.
That is why, in any living democracy, the Leader of the
Opposition gets a constitutional position, equal to a Minister
in status.
In our scheme of things, there are a very few committees, in
which the leader of the opposition is also a member. However, if
the ruling party has a road roller majority, the opposition can
do precious little. When they cannot check or prod, they can
only hope to replace the Government party in the next elections.
However what was done by the opposition AIADMK in the Tamil Nadu
assembly was an election campaign. They perhaps, conveniently
forgot that the State elections are still far away.
The moment the media came to know that the Leader of the
Opposition, the former Chief Minister Jayalalitha was coming to
Fort St. George, they knew something unusual was going to
happen. She had signed the register on the opening day of this
session and she turned up only on the concluding day. Not
belying the worst fears of the media, there was a near scuffle
situation, averted by the timely, but short adjournment of the
House by the Speaker.
There were, as expected several verbal clashes between the
opposition AIADMK and the ruling party. The AIADMK leader made a
few statements with a political tinge. Enough to provoke the
ruling party. She had to face the interruptions of the Ministers
on many an occasion. At one stage she questioned the the very
basis of the statement made by the Chief Minister that according
to a Supreme Court verdict, the State can not arrest those who
speak in favour of a banned organisation. To this, a few
Ministers wanted to know the basis on which Vaiko was released!
Every reply from the Ministers evoked shouts from the AIADMK
members and counter-shouts from the ruling DMK members.
Fifty years back
Then, Jayalalitha questioned as to how the committee, which
according to the Chief Minister, will have knowledgeable
Advocates can have persons like the Finance Minister, who was
only an Asst Professor earlier. To this, Anbazhagan said he was
proud to have been an Asst Professor, but can he dig the past
and find what others were fifty years ago. There were shouts
from the opposition to this remark..They came to the well of the
House and started pointing fingers at the ruling party members.
At this juncture, the House was adjourned. Even after the House
reassembled, things were no different. There were enough
provocations to create problems. At one stage when Jayalalitha
referred to age old happenings, the Chief Minister asked her if
the House can be reminded about the Janaki group and the
Jayalalitha group and also about the poison in milk and
buttermilk?
After leveling several charges against the Government and
condemning the rule , she led the walk-out by her party men. One
should appreciate the patience and silence observed by the Chief
Minister, who at the fag end of the session wanted the media to
explain to the public as to how there was storm in the House on
the concluding day after the total calm that prevailed during
the previous one week. He also said that the patience of the
ruling party was due to its desire to protect the good tradition
of the House and not due to its attachment to the position of
power.
As the distinguished Canadian parliamentarian Stanley Knowles
put it:,... the opposition should so conduct itself in
Parliament as to persuade the people of the country that it
could be an improvement on the government of the day. It is for
Jayalalitha to judge whether her party had conducted itself in
this fashion.
HR
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