Opinion Why the suspended MPs will not apologise
🔴 Binoy Viswam writes: They stand by democratic principles and parliamentary procedure
Parliament has been turned into a law-making factory where the brute force of majority overpowers all norms and procedures. 
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The Opposition came to the Winter Session with the hope that, for once, the government would honour Parliament and its ethos by engaging in debate and discussion about the issues affecting the lives of Indian citizens. The customary all-party meeting held by the government and the short speech made by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh fed that hope. Some of us wondered whether such a significant all-party meeting held such little regard for the Prime Minister that it could be skipped. Our surprise was short-lived because we have now learnt from our collective experience since 2014, that under Modiji, Parliament and its proceedings do not require much attention. His presence in the House is so rare that even the treasury benches make it a point to vociferously cheer and applaud him on the rare occasions that he chooses to “visit”.
On the morning of the first day of the session, the PM proudly claimed, in a public address, that he and his government would answer all questions and issues raised by the Opposition. The promise proved hollow. The government passed the farm laws’ repeal bills without any discussion in both Houses on the same day. It justified this action by claiming that a discussion was not required as the repeal had long been demanded by the Opposition. But our reading of parliamentary procedure tells us that once a bill is introduced, it becomes the property of the House. In pursuance of that principle, the Opposition vehemently demanded a discussion and debate. It appears that this government believes that bills can be passed in Parliament without discussion or scrutiny — and they can be repealed in the same manner.
After the repeal of the anti-farmer Acts, the government cleverly planned a diversionary tactic. It brought a motion to suspend 12 MPs, including me, from the House. It is quite unusual that in the name of events in the previous session, disciplinary action is being taken in the current one. Government voices are now justifying the suspension based on the report of a “committee” that was constituted to look into the events of August 11. However, the said committee’s functioning was unknown to anyone and neither it, nor its report, finds any mention in the resolution.
Assuming the committee existed, not one suspended MP was given the opportunity to be heard, violating all principles of natural justice.
Such abuse of parliamentary practices are not exceptions under the BJP government. Parliament has been turned into a law-making factory where the brute force of majority overpowers all norms and procedures. The “disrupted” Monsoon Session has been strategically placed at the door of the Opposition, while forgetting that for the entirety of the session, the Opposition demanded, through every parliamentary tool available, debates and discussions on issues such as the farm laws, price rise, mismanagement of Covid, and Pegasus. On August 11 came the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021. Though the nomenclature of the original act talks about nationalisation, the 2021 amendment bill sought the annihilation of public sector insurance companies. Despite the Opposition’s repeated pleas to send the bill to a Select Committee, the government passed the Bill in under 30 minutes. It was this draconian bill and unparliamentary action that was being opposed on the last day of the previous session.
It is worthwhile here to note the words of late Arun Jaitley, as leader of Opposition in 2011: “Parliament’s job is to conduct discussions. But many times, Parliament is used to ignore issues and, in such situations, obstruction of Parliament is in the favour of democracy. Therefore, parliamentary obstruction is not undemocratic.” The government conveniently forgets the fact that “disruptions” happened only because of its dictatorial approach.
As the suspension prevails, many people talk about settling the issue through apologies. The Opposition collectively holds the view that such a step cannot even be considered as we strive to raise our voices in solidarity with the peasants and workers and for the defence of the great values of democracy — for the real spirit of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”. In such a situation, no self-respecting political party or its worker will tender any sort of apology. We have learnt our politics from a different school than that of Savarkar.
This column first appeared in the print edition on December 3, 2021 under the title ‘Why we won’t apologise’. The writer is a CPI Rajya Sabha MP
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