Drinks on the House

It has been evident for some time that our elected representatives waste time on trivial pursuits instead of debating real issues. But this Monsoon session has been such an endlessly silly season as to set a new record. First, there was all that fuss about the Prime Minister8217;s alleged 8216;8216;flip-flop8217;8217; over Ayodhya.

Was there really a flip-flop? Does it matter anyway? That stopped only when the pesticide story broke and by the time you read this, there might be some other irrelevant thing that concentrates the energies and vocal chords of our MPs.

You would think, really, with so much trivia causing so much 8216;8216;uproar8217;8217; in Parliament that India was a wonderously wealthy country instead of one in which half the population lives without such basic necessities as clean drinking water and housing.

The sad part is that there is so much work to be done. With terrorism one of the terrible new realities we confront daily, you would think, would you not, that at least one session of Parliament could have been spent debating why the police still functions under a penal code written in 1860 by Lord Macaulay.

We expect our security forces to deal with the horrors of new 21st-century violence under laws so antiquated as to be a joke. When was the last time there was a walkout 8212; or a debate 8212; on this subject?

While on the subject of our ancient penal code, it is worth mentioning, yet again, that the judiciary is another subject that needs an entire session devoted to it. Our justice system will remain ineffectual and unreliable as long as the backlog in our courts remains so overwhelming that it will take more than 300 years to clear. The results of having a stagnant justice system are painfully evident. Last week saw a verdict in the Bali bombing case, which happened barely a year ago, but victims of the Mumbai bomb blasts continue, 10 years later, to wait for justice to be done. We need urgent reform but Parliament has so far not found time to discuss the subject.

Just as it has not found time to discuss ways to modernise governance and elections. Speaking of which, another special session should be devoted to the Vice-President8217;s suggestion that we have fixed terms for governments and legislatures and a fixed date on which elections are held to Parliament and the state legislatures.

Whatever qualms Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh may have about the possibilities of 8216;8216;cheating like hell8217;8217;, we need to discuss the subject because as things stand, our politicians spend far too much time on politics and elections and far too little on governance and real issues. So, Bharat Mata8217;s achievements are inclined to be largely negative 8212; the largest number of illiterate, malnourished, destitute people in the world. These are problems that can only be solved by governance and by Parliament concentrating on the things that matter.

The way the Government spends our money should matter but when was the last time you heard a serious debate on the Finance Bill? The result? Idiotic ideas get included like the Finance Minister8217;s attempt in this Budget to tax expatriates living in India. Who is going to come to India, or bring their money to India, if they are going to be at the mercies of our Income Tax Department? There are not that many foreigners who want to come here anyway so it8217;s not as if vast amounts of money are going to be collected in taxes. But, certainly, it opens vast new possibilities for corrupt income tax officials.

Patently foolish ideas get passed mainly because there is rarely a real debate on the Budget. Had there been a real debate, would we not by now have some idea why successive governments have spent so little on such vital things as primary education, healthcare and sanitation? And, why we continue to spend so much on armies of officials and needless government machinery that far from delivering governance, actually blocks it.

Having said this, it would be wrong if I did not conclude by admitting that part of the blame lies with the media and the fact that in our newspapers and TV channels, trivia is given more importance than it deserves. There was a time when newspapers sent only their most experienced reporters to cover Parliament, but with the arrival of private TV channels, this has changed. Nearly every news channel I watch usually has some breathless young creature reporting from the Lok Sabha and the result is reportage that is almost as banal as the issues that excite our MPs.

So, on the pesticides in Coke and Pepsi we had the sort of wall-to-wall, detailed reporting that only a major political crisis deserves. Perhaps, the media needs to grow up as well, perhaps we the people get only the MPs we deserve.

One way or another, it8217;s becoming increasingly difficult to take Parliament seriously.

Write to the author at tavleensinghexpressindia.com