Lead the way

The new Lok Sabha,barely a year into its term,has already been marred by the worst kind of partisanship and lack of imaginative engagement. The opposition banded together to disrupt proceedings in both Houses of Parliament,forcing two adjournments by afternoon. They demanded a rollback of the recently announced hike in petrol and diesel rates. Instead of being a force for positive change,the opposition has wielded its power merely to obstruct. This is part of a worrying pattern,the gradual diminishing of Parliament as the primary arena for political argument.

While the fuel hike is a contentious public issue,there is,in fact,some measure of cross-party political consensus on the subject it was,after all,the NDA which first dismantled the administered pricing mechanism in the oil sector. Both sides of the aisle are fundamentally agreed on the need to deregulate oil. However,if they now want to corner the government over a politically flammable matter,that is their prerogative. But what coherent objections have they put forward? If they had substantive reservations about the governments decision to hike Central excise duty on petrol and diesel,then the obvious thing to do would be to debate the issue,demand a cut motion. Instead of using the legislative toolset available to them,the opposition parties simply turned their backs on parliamentary engagement.

The tension between government and opposition is productive,it strikes sparks,and it can clarify tangled policy matters. Deliberative democracy is built on deep and important disagreements. But those need to be argued and resolved,not simply expressed through hissyfits and walkouts. Also,given that they just walked out two days ago during the presentation of the Union Budget,an unprecedented low in the history of Parliament,virtually the entire spectrum of opposition parties stormed out over the same issue,it is unclear what this new uproar was symbolically expected to achieve. Except,of course,easy public pandering via television cameras. This trend reveals the abdication of real and responsible leadership in favour of shallow point-

scoring for the public eye.