Silence in Parliament – Manmohan Singh

India has spent more than six and half decades after Independence. Has the Parliament, the most important institution of country gained more and more importance? At least that was the natural expectation. This is a platform where people’s elected representatives will debate on people’s issues. They will advise, pressurize the government to make new law or to modify it. It is natural that parliament will be full of lengthy debates on issues of people’s demand, expectation and welfare. But if the parliament session time gets reduced continuously and if that small session too, is spent by blaming each other, walkouts and boycotts then it’s a serious issue for the country. Unfortunately, this is happening today.

Yearly session days of Parliament have been reduced from 127 to 46 over the years after Independence. That little time is also spent by unnecessary political fighting. This clearly shows that the debate on issues regarding people’s expectation has no value against the political expectation of our honored public representatives. It took almost three years (December, 2009 to August, 2012) to start the second day’s discussion of an incomplete discussed issue (MAO activity). In the political cacophony raised by an auditor’s report, governance and reforms are clearly not priority for our lawmakers.

More than 90 bills are waiting to be approved by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha naming few like, Women Reservation Bill, Banking Laws Amendment Bills, Insurance Amendment Bills and the famous Lokpal Bill.

These bills are not only necessary but have a direct impact on life of common men.

Doesn’t this show that people’s expectations are not at all a priority for our politicians? Silence can be poetic to our PM but definitely dangerous for country’s future. With adjournments, the Parliament’s to-do list is only increasing.

Our politicians are extremely busy in forming and strengthening various political parties and paralyzing us. Each party wants to show importance and its share of wallet! In terms of financial loss, over Rs 126 crore were lost due to stalling and disruptions of both Houses over coal scam and other issues. This has not been earned by any political leader but by common men of the country. What a calculative loss in the midst of country’s financial crisis! First hype and then don`t work to close it.. is the mantra.

The public representatives who have collapsed the recent parliament session in a planned way will get their salary and daily allowance in full which has come out from people’s pocket. The silent message of our leaders is very clear, ‘DON’T EXPECT ANYTHING’!

- Kushal Bhattacharya