Dissent Is The Way To Push The Issues Of People In And Outside The Parliament, Then And Now Also
By D N Singh
The last two days have witnessed that, the voice of dissent by the opposition in the parliament has been dealt with a severity like suspension of members, from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Four were suspended on Monday from the Lok sabha and 19 from the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Nineteen opposition Members were suspended from #RajyaSabha for a week for disrupting House proceedings. https://t.co/YZ0YeTr3vT pic.twitter.com/vT75UZfsRp
— IANS (@ians_india) July 26, 2022
The issues were not in any way out of the box but highly relatable to common man. And that too, so vital in essence which touches the throbbing nerve of men on the ground who look up to their political representatives to caution the ones in power.
Dissent is a timeless way to criticise the system that rules when it loses sight of the pain of the ruled and the mind set to avoid discussions on such topics can also be dubbed as overriding on the realities.
Rising inflation, unemployment and many other issues were what transpired into the epilogue when 19 Rajya Sabha members were suspended.
May be somewhere the said MPs resorted, as alleged, to methods which does not befit the position of the Chair but, they were not entirely anti-democratic in essence. The chair could have silenced by saying in favour of a discussion later. But that did not happen.
Looking back to the time when the BJP was in the opposition, away from the treasury benches, for a decade till 2014, it was responsible for obstructionism too.
It may be recalled that, then Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha late Arun Jaitley was quoted as saying in Ranchi – “Parliament’s job is to conduct discussions. But many a time, 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.” That Jaitley had told in 2011.
So there cannot be different yardsticks in different times. Even Jaitley had told outside the parliament that, “There are occasions when an obstruction in Parliament brings greater benefits to the country… Our strategy does not permit us to allow the government to use Parliament (for debate) without being held accountable… we do not want to give the government an escape route through debate.”
In the subsequent year, i.e in 2012, leader of the opposition, Sushma Swaraj on the frequent disruptions and a washed-out Monsoon session of Parliament, Swaraj had said – “Not allowing parliament to function is also a form of democracy, like any other”.
Perhaps the same day Jaitley had stated that disruption of a session over the allocation of 2G spectrum, how helped the cleanse the telecom sector.
In 2012 Sushma Swaraj was in record in response to then prime minister Manmohan Singh that it was not negation of democracy but it pays results like in the case coal block allocations.
So now the issue of inflation is far more paramount that many in the past and by facing voices of dissent or obstructions may be, the BJP is getting a taste of its own medicines of some years back.
