People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

One Year Of Assault On Parliamentary Democracy

AS we go to press, the bourgeois media is busy compiling a score card seeking to evaluate the first year in office of the UPA government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh. While some are busy ticking points on a 10 point scale others are employing the more fanciful grading system –– A, A+, A-, etc,. This government completes a year on May 22.

The real observation of this one year ought to be the concern that the country must express at the relentless assault being mounted by BJP-led NDA against parliamentary democracy itself. The country has seen many governments in Independent India. Most have completed a year in office. Their performance has been evaluated. So will this government be evaluated.

But, never before in  Independent India have we seen parliamentary proceedings being disrupted for a whole year! The motion of thanks on the President's address was adopted amidst an opposition boycott. So was the Finance bill last year. In fact, there was not a single session of either house without a boycott or a major disruption.

These decisions to derail parliamentary democracy are being taken by the NDA parliamentary group chaired by Atal Behari Vajpayee himself. Not long ago as the PM he would harangue the country through pacharak sermons on how the opposition should behave in a responsible manner! He indeed heads a “party with a difference” –– a party sans any principle or value.

In any case what is the merit of their reasoning for disrupting parliament? The most ingenious has one that claims that their leaders are not being heard in the House! Now, the PM himself  has assured them that they can raise any issue they wish to. The speaker of the Lok Sabha has, in writing, assured them fair play in the House. Why then is the boycott continuing?

The real reasons must be sought elsewhere. The NDA is demanding that tainted UPA ministers must resign. The immediate target is the rail minister. Now everybody in the country is aware of the Left's standards of political morality and this need not be repeated.

However, the practice of having charge-sheeted ministers was legalised by Vajpayee himself! Advani, Joshi,Uma Bharti, charge sheeted for a criminl conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid, served under him with important portifolios! George Fernandes was first made to resign on the tehelka exposures and later shamelessly reinducted even while the inquiry was on! In a classic case of pot calling the kettle black, the BJP is shamelessly philibustering parliamentary democracy.

In fact, this need not appear strange. The BJP being the political arm of the RSS only echoes the latter's antipathy to secular democracy. Pursuing the agenda of converting the secular democratic republic into a fascistic Hindu-rashtra the RSS/BJP has come into confontration with every single Constitutional authority in the country –– the EC, the NHRC, the CAG, the judicial system etc,. And now the parliament itself. The signifiance of the monumental decision the Indian people have taken in the general elections 2004 can now be understood better. For the sake of strengthening the modern Indian republic they must be kept as far away from state power as possible.

(May 4, 2005)