Mumbai, Aug. 14 : It was colossal waste of money in the recently concluded Monsoon Session. Several important legislations, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, have been jettisoned amidst fierce tohubohu in the House that suspended 25 chaotic Congress parliamentarians for five days.
There is a demand to use filibustering techniques to prevent logjam in the Parliament.
The recently concluded Monsoon Session was really disheartening, as both the Houses saw perpetual disruptions over the resignation of three senior BJP leaders, including Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
A strong opposition political party is a must for smooth functioning of democracy to check the ruling government’s decisions but not like the Congress Party which continued agitation at the cost of nation’s interest.
Several key legislations, including the GST Bill, which is expected to bring about the biggest indirect tax reform since 1947, have been prorogued. Crores of tax payers’ money went down the drain, reducing the world’s largest democracy to a farcical exercise with a clean washout in the monsoon.
The proposal of ‘no work no pay’ model should immediately be implemented in India, as it will ensure smooth functioning of Parliament like other nations that have adopted the same model that deters their MPs to protest unnecessarily. The adoption of this model would help to pass key legislations for the betterment of the nation.
In a bid to mitigate the impact of continuous logjam in the Parliament, there should be an urgency procedure to speed up proceedings if necessary, subject to safeguards.
The lion’s share of blame for continuous Parliament logjam lies with the Congress Party that really behaved irresponsibly in the recently concluded session. The Upper House, where the ruling NDA is in minority, was the worst hit due to the cacophony and functioned only for about nine hours.
Despite NDA’s dominance, the Lower House sat for around 47 hours. Really unfortunate!
Only 10 bills were introduced and six were passed in the Lok Sabha, whereas the Rajya Sabha witnessed passage of two bills and withdrawal of three bills. That’s it!
How callously the hard earned money of the hapless tax payers was drained off again. It has frustrated the ‘aam aadmi’ to observe the hullaballoo in both the Houses of Parliament, as it has heavily dented the Indian public exchequer.
Citizens are really worried if the Parliament can be insulated from excesses of party politics.
Citizens of India cry with blood in the every droplet of tears to see their elected MPs locking horns with their rivals over petty issues in the Parliament. But what could be the way out of this huge loss? There has been ongoing debate over how to insulate the business hours of Parliament from the rut of India’s caustic politics. No issues other than those concerning the nation’s interest or for that matter related to the public shall be considered in the agenda for any deliberation in the august house of Parliament. And the protesting parliamentarians should be shown the door and all their political benefits should be nipped off for at least a year.
The compelling requirement of time also begs India’s apex court to intervene and issue a strong directive to all the parliamentarians to have healthy arguments in the heart of world’s largest democracy.
No personal attack should be allowed to take place in the Parliament. It is important to safeguard the pluralism of democratic process of world’s largest democracy.
(ANI)