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A bold decision

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s unprecedented decision to report 32 MPs to the privileges committee reflects the distress and frustration of a presiding officer who has come to the end of his patience with legislators’ misbehaviour. The punitive step was overdue inasmuch as it was preceded by several unheeded warnings by Mr. Chatterjee, and also by an earnest appeal by Vice-President Hamid Ansari earlier this year. Just how deep the rot runs is underscor ed by anguish voiced at the dozen or so conferences of presiding officers and leaders of parties, each vowing to restore decorum and discipline to Parliament. Of the 32 MPs under the scanner, Brajesh Pathak of the Bahujan Samaj Party has been reported to the committee for his refusal to allow Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ram Vilas Paswan to answer a question he himself put. The rest, mostly Bharatiya Janata Party MPs, have been hauled up for raising slogans in the face of repeated appeals by the chair. The principal opposition party, which has made disruption a habit, had this coming. The pattern was set early in the 14th Lok Sabha, when the BJP forced the United Progressive Alliance government’s first budget to be passed without a discussion. In the four years since, the party has used one or another pretext to stall the proceedings of both Houses.

The BJP’s defence in the latest instance is that it was speaking for the poor of India when it raised slogans in the Lok Sabha against the price rise. The party is being disingenuous. Parliamentary records establish that Mr. Chatterjee, off his own bat, set aside April 15 for a discussion on the price rise. Instead of using the opportunity to voice its anguish, the BJP predictably held up the House. The issue? Price rise, of course. The irony is compounded by the absence during the debate (pushed to the following day) of both the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, and his deputy, Vijay Kumar Malhotra. Mr. Advani used the time to address the media — again on the same subject. The tragedy is none of this will seem out of the ordinary to those accustomed to watching Indian Parliamentarians in action. Today Parliament has a become byword for bedlam but the larger issue goes beyond habitual disruption and affects the credibility of the parliamentary system itself. Only a handful of the MPs attended the price rise debate. No more than 60 of the 536 MPs were present when the Lok Sabha voted on the Ministry of Rural Development’s demand for grants. India cannot both claim to be the largest democracy and show persistent disrespect to the institution that represents the will of the people. Mr. Chatterjee needs to be applauded on his bold decision.

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