Blunting the edge

Ever since the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) expressed its inability to furnish its findings on defence procurement and the Opposition protested against the government’s refusal to part with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) report to the PAC, this Monsoon session has seemed just an angry slogan away from deadlock. There have been walk-outs and Parliament was repeatedly adjourned, often more than once a day. Last week in Rajya Sabha, the Opposition, or almost all of it, declared a boycott of the rest of the session. Is this, then, the way we come to the very first motion of no-confidence in the 13th Lok Sabha — without giving debate a fighting chance? Is this the manner in which the ultimate tool in a parliamentary democracy should be used by the Opposition — without first staying in Parliament long enough to discuss or debate? The government cannot escape responsibility for the breakdown either. Surely, it could have made more of an effort to sit the Opposition parties down. And to explain to them why a regime that makes such loud claims of transparency and the right to information is so unwilling to give access to sensitive information to a high-powered committee of Parliament like the PAC.

The reason why we have reached here is obvious. The issue was never important, and no one wants to search for a solution to the impasse for fear that they may find it. That would suit neither government nor Opposition. For the Congress, the no-confidence motion is any one or all of the following: A way of projecting Sonia as Leader, of making the troublesome SP and NCP fall in line, of heckling the government ahead of the November assembly polls.

For a government secure in its numbers, it could provide a useful forum to launch its campaign for the states, without the frisson of real danger that normally attends such a motion. It is tragic that what should have been a grave, responsible moment, should become a spectacle.