The main opposition grouping,the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance,announced on Monday that it would boycott Home Minister P. Chidambaram. This decision does not mean that they refuse to play cricket with him at the annual Lok Sabha v Rajya Sabha match,but that they will not permit him to speak in either House,presumably by shouting slogans,rushing to the well of the House,walking out,or using one of the many other methods of disruption available to irresponsible parliamentarians. The reason,they say,is that he is as guilty as A. Raja,the former telecom minister who is the one chargesheeted in the 2G scam. Until the prime minister forces the home minister to resign,the BJP has informed us,the boycott will continue. The opposition wishes,perhaps,to convince voters that corruption is omnipresent in the government an effort only aided by the Congress-led UPAs continuing inability to come out and defend policy decisions,distinguishing a policy choice from an effort to warp policy to favour certain interests. Yet,the BJP seems to have forgotten that the only true way in which this political point can be made is in continually holding the government up to the highest form of scrutiny and letting the legal process take its course. In choosing the gimmicky,irresponsible path of disruption,by flaunting that it will gag the Union home minister,the BJP does a disservice to itself. It has accurately identified paralysis in the government as the target for its political attack but a boycott only blunts that offensive. The incident recalls the Congresss equally shamefully evasive boycott in Parliament of a Union minister,the then defence minister,George Fernandes,when the NDA was in power. The current leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha,Sushma Swaraj,was then the parliamentary affairs minister attempting to get Parliament to function; perhaps she has a few tips for the UPA? At the time,the BJP had said that this kind of bullying and blackmailing will not work. They can continue the boycott,but work in Parliament will go on. The BJP,with good reason,called it unparalleled in the history of democracy. How strange that it is now working on providing a parallel.
