Opinion Vandita Mishra writes: Parliament has re-opened its doors, but will it let debate in?
Three images speak of a deliberative space that was always fragile, and is now rapidly shrinking
The crisis of the legislatures is showcased in Parliament most visibly, but it is linked to the more unnoticed erosion of debate and thinning substance of law-making in state assemblies across the country. (Credit: sansad.in) Parliament reopened on Monday, and as we brace for glimpses of the deliberative institution under strain, let’s take a detour to Bihar. In the state that has just registered a record voter turnout, a dubious record was set by the outgoing assembly.
Between November 2020 to July 2025, according to PRS Legislative Research, the 17th Bihar assembly met for 146 days, the lowest of all its five-year terms. It met on an average for 29 days a year, each sitting lasting around three hours, way below the five-hour average for state legislatures in 2024. Each and every one of the 78 bills was passed on the day of introduction, no bill was referred to a committee for greater scrutiny. The 17th Bihar assembly was among the least deliberative in the state’s post-Independence history. Yet, in the Bihar election campaign, its feebly functioning House was not seen as an issue worthy of being raised by the Opposition parties, or more correctly, by their high commands.
For party high commands, arguably, diktat and obedience supersede debate and deliberation. Alongside that Bihar snapshot, take a look at a photograph from Karnataka.
In Bengaluru on Saturday, two regional stalwarts of the main national Opposition party pose together self-consciously. As Chief Minister and Deputy CM, Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar must surely have a working relationship, but here they look like schoolboys in a command performance. They have forced half-smiles on their faces, and upma, idli, kesari bath and a fragile truce on the table between them.
The meeting, reports say, was held at the instance of the high command, and any decision regarding a change of guard in Karnataka would also be taken by the high command. The see-through staginess of the show of unity between leaders warring over a power-sharing deal only drew attention to the invisible strings being pulled from Delhi.
If the Congress high command, fresh from the drubbing it led the party to in Bihar, is a shadow puppeteer in Bengaluru, the BJP high command, high on its spate of victories, is in-your-face everywhere. It has given up even the pretence of masking where the real power is concentrated. The party of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah has functioned without a party president since January 2024. In Parliament, treasury benches often erupt in chants of “Modi Modi” and BJP ministers and MPs seldom make speeches that do not pay obeisance to him.
Now look at another freeze frame, from Central Hall in Parliament, on Constitution Day. In it, PM Modi and LoP Rahul Gandhi stand and read from the Preamble, along with other leaders and constitutional dignitaries. That Modi and Rahul are in the same frame is rare and striking. The two are not known to be on talking terms. Modi labels Rahul’s party the “Muslim League-y Maowadi Congress” while Rahul accuses Modi of stealing elections or “vote chori”.
Taken together, these snapshots from Bihar, Karnataka and Parliament tell the story of a deliberative space that was always fragile, but is now, amid sharpening polarisation and institutional fraying, rapidly shrinking.
The crisis of Parliament is linked to the more unnoticed erosion of debate in state assemblies. More and more, they function as echo-chambers of executive authority.
This is, in turn, connected to the lack of deliberation inside parties overrun by a high command culture. After the Bihar debacle, the Congress high command has steered the post-mortem towards a blame-laying exercise that targets the EC, when it is not pointing fingers at the NDA’s poll-eve cash transfer scheme. The Mahila Rojgar Yojana was indeed controversial, but the Congress uses it to evade uncomfortable questions closer home, such as why it failed to offer voters a big idea that could vault over the faultlines of caste and community.
A high command that shirks discussion within cannot convincingly lead the charge against the waning of deliberative spaces in the polity. Congressmen who are disdained and dominated inside their party make unlikely campaigners for freedom of debate in other institutions. In Parliament, the anti-defection law further ties MPs to their high command’s whim.
This picture is completed by the freeze at the top, which has a chilling effect on civil debate all the way down in the polity.
The breakdown of dialogue and reciprocity between PM Modi and LoP Rahul Gandhi has consequences. It makes any encounter between the two an apocalyptic, zero-sum event. The middle ground has gone missing, the give-and-take of debate is replaced by do-or-die point-scoring.
The writer is national opinion editor, The Indian Express. vandita.mishra@expressindia.com
Share
