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Action replay in Parliament

Recent empirical findings lend support to the common wisdom that asserts that there has been a steady erosion of public faith in politicians and the political system. Seventy-six per cent of those who responded to a recent nation-wide survey by Outlook magazine felt that politicians had given Indian democracy a bad name. Strengthening such scepticism has been the sight of political leaders in form in the two Houses of Parliament. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha may have been conceived by the founding fathers as Houses of enlightened debate but today the image of Parliament that emerges from television is more akin to a boxing ring. Some would attribute the bedlam to the nature of India's polity. In contrast to the dour and forbidding manner of its Western counterparts, the Indian Parliament is seen as a lively reflection of the country's socially and culturally diverse polity. And yet, Parliament must function with a minimum consensus or risk being reduced to irrelevance in the public eye, with the attendant danger of popular disillusionment with the democratic process itself. Unfortunately, the rot may be already running too deep, with Parliament habitually lurching from session to unproductive session, with bills and debates on key issues taking the backseat to noisy protests and walkouts.

That there are no honourable exceptions in this tiringly repetitive story of disruptions and adjournments was brought home this budget session when two of India's better-behaved parliamentary parties — the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam — clashed over a bill seeking to establish a Maritime University in Chennai. Mercifully, the two parties, one a supporter of the ruling United Progressive Alliance and the other a constituent of the Alliance, swiftly expressed regret for their "emotionally charged" behaviour. No such virtue can, of course, be attributed to the BJP, which has proved itself to be a poor loser after the May 2004 general election. In the aftermath of that defeat, the BJP boycotted the budget, leading to its passage without a discussion. In the Rajya Sabha on Monday, its members made a bid to snatch budget-related papers from Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, forcing him to cut short his reply to crucial points raised by members. The party has gained a reputation for disobeying rules, flouting agreements reached in the Speaker's chamber, and refusing to extend the normal parliamentary courtesies to Ministers and to other parties. The Treasury and the Opposition benches must come to a minimum agreement on running Parliament — if not for improving their own public image, at least for the sake of Indian democracy.

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