Houses in disorder

What happened in the Lok Sabha on Friday was ugly and extremely unbecoming. But it was not exactly unpredictable. Few, in fact, expected ...

What happened in the Lok Sabha on Friday was ugly and extremely unbecoming. But it was not exactly unpredictable. Few, in fact, expected the smooth passage of the women’s reservation Bill. Only the politically innocent could have presumed that even the proposed re-introduction of the Bill in the current session of Parliament would be allowed to proceed unhindered. It was not five months ago when the so-proclaimed new charter for women was torn to shreds by its challengers on the floor of the House. History has now been repeated in an even more farcical manner. No matter who started it this time round — Mamata Banerjee striking a blow for the rights of the weaker sex or Samajwadi Party’s Daroga Prasad Saroj putting up manful resistance to the measure. There is little mystery, however, about the consequence of the most unparliamentary confrontation.

To say that it is likely to serve only the purpose of putting off the long-promised legislation once again will be circumlocution. What has been witnessed is thedeliberate stalling of a Bill. One that would seem to be unwanted all round, despite claims and protestations to the contrary.To say this is not to support the women’s quota move. The measure has been subjected to much criticism in these columns. What it deserved in Parliament, however, was serious debate. Fisticuffs are, certainly, not the form of political discourse by which issues of such a vital bearing can be decided.

The stalling tactics and their success reveal not only the anti-democratic attitudes of the SP and Rashtriya Janata Party who oppose the measure. They expose the hollowness and hypocrisy of the avowed supporters of the Bill. Their audible sigh of relief at every stalling success would have been less objectionable had it been preceded by a more parliamentary opposition to the measure. Ideological differences must legitimately be thrashed out. But this needs to be distinguished from arbitrary disruption of legitimate business. After all, legislators are meant to legislate. When even such amechanism as the select committee comes to be misused to aid in stalling exercises, it is time to sit up and take note.

It is not only an unruly response to a legislation proposal that results in such tricks being played on the tax-payer. More frequent have been the occasions when unruliness entirely unrelated to debates on legislation have served to paralyse the functioning of Parliament and state legislatures, leaving little time for serious legislation. So what is the solution to this unhappy state of affairs? Is there any effective way to ensure better legislative conduct which alone can enable better conduct of legislative business? Televised coverage of parliamentary proceedings has ceased to inspire improved conduct. MPs misbehave even before the camera. The former Lok Sabha Speaker, P.A. Sangma, could not carry far his idea of making ordinary law applicable to those who break the law in the House. It is for the parliamentarians themselves, ultimately, to provide the answer.