Unparliamentary

The Union Budget is an occasion of great ceremony. It begins with the arrival of the finance minister carrying,conspicuously for the cameras,a briefcase of documents after all,the word budget derives from an old French word for a little bag. The stage is entirely his as a customarily packed Lok Sabha keeps itself roused to boo or welcome even arcane tax proposals. And with the minister having had his say,they all tumble out with instant critiques. There is almost a festive air through this contentiousness because,of course,the real business of debating the Budget in the House and consideration of the demands by standing committees of Parliament will truly begin on the morrow. On Budget day,Parliament affirms its primacy in authorising the governments expenditure and its proposals for tax levies by hearing out the finance minister.

Not this time. On Friday,the opposition undermined Parliament by choosing to walk out almost to the last MP there was the quaint picture cut by Jaswant Singh remaining seated through the ruckus even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee read on. They gathered themselves out of the House in a big huff over the hike in petroleum product duties,and we had the oddest sight of Lok Sabha MPs feeding the waiting camera crews outside with denunciations of the proposal without obtaining the full text of the Budget. From the BJP,this was conspicuous incoherence: had the NDA not taken great strides to reform petroleum prices,to the then-too present din of complaints that this would have an inflationary effect? However,incoherence apart,the walkout was another step in the gradual erosion of the House as a site for meaningful and responsive engagement.

It is yet another low for this Lok Sabha,not even a year into its term. And more than previous disruptions,it marks the flight of responsible engagement from the House. It is not just that a show of opposition unity by walkout displays a lack of imagination and stamina to use the instruments of legislature to hold a government to account. It is also that it confirms a suspicion that MPs see the legislature as little more than a site to numerically test a governments majority.