Our live parliamentary sessions can make a Hollywood sci-fi director feel ill at ease
Our live parliamentary sessions can make a Hollywood sci-fi director feel ill at ease. One can find virtually everything flying in our Parliament ufffd ranging from bottles to microphones to footwear... and perhaps human beings too in the near future! A glance at Lok Sabha TV or even YouTube footage of our Parliament sessions would be enough to provide evidence of the extent of lack of basic culture and education that our honourable members of Parliament possess. What comes as an utter shame and embarrassment, especially for the electorate, is the manner in which their elected leaders represent their cause!
Last year, the Women's Reservation Bill was disrupted to such an extent that seven of our MPs had to be suspended for the remaining sessions. So much so that the MPs went to the extent of snatching and tearing the bill document into pieces ufffd the MPs then uprooted the Chairman's mic and climbed on the table to mark their protest!
In 2008, the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee adjourned the house when MPs went into a verbal clash which was so severe that even the speaker summed up the situation as follows, "The Parliament has become a public street. I can only express my agony. It is a murder of democracy." Amidst all these, how can one forget the shameful incident of the cash-for-votes scam; or the session in 2008 where MPs went absolutely berserk and threw microphones and chairs at each other! The disruptions and adjournments during the 2010 budget session cost the taxpayer about Rs 18 crore and 115 working hours ufffd Lok Sabha lost 36 per cent of its time and Rajya Sabha lost 28 per cent.
Such incidents are disgraceful and speak volumes about our ill-educated political class. Disrespecting the houses and colleagues is unwarranted behaviour. And given the fact that our sessions are aired live on national TV and covered by global media, such acts highlight the way we solve issues of national importance.
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This has to stop immediately. And for that, the Indian Constitution should make provisions and ban such MPs from assemblies and criminalise such offences. If required, the Election Commission may temporarily suspend their political career and prosecute them legally. Any act of violence, use of unparliamentary (read abusive) language and irrational walkouts should be brought under the ambit of legislation and should be criminalised. Probably then we can expect some discipline from our MLAs!
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