DEBATE - ONLY ON TV CHANNELS AND NOT IN PARLIAMENT?
By Ruma Dubey
When there is a dispute between a husband and a wife, the advice which everyone gives is – communicate and try and see if the issues can be resolved. Or when two friends fight and stop talking to each other, other common friends try to mediate and get the two warring friends to talk and resolve.
The magic word for solving any issue is “talk”. And looks like this is one advice, like many others, falling on deaf ears when it comes to the Govt – be it the Opposition or the ruling party. The BJP is right in demanding answers but not listening when the Prime Minister is trying to speak is downright immature. An Opposition needs to be constructive and show how much more able it is than the ruling party, by raising he right points and putting the govt in a corner. But if its only intention is to create a ruckus and not debate at all, disrupting the Parliament, what is the point which it is trying to make?
The PM too, on his part, had a very meek response which he read out today. It seems he had this “speech” ready for the past few days, so why did it take him so long to speak up? Why does he always sit on issues and react when it is too late? His small speech today was ineffective; too late and too little.
So we are at a deadlock; we seem to be stuck there for one reason or the other. Policy paralysis has been used so often that it has actually becoming even quite boring to even mention it. You mention ‘policy paralysis’ and people around might raise their eye brows or stifle a yawn and change the subject by saying, “what else?”
The market was optimistic when Pranab Mukherjee became President and the baton for FM changed from Manmohan Singh to Chidambaram. There was hope that this Monsoon session of Parliament might usher in the much needed impetus to the growth of the country. But all that seems to happen is a ruckus, bad behavior and adjournment. This session, which began on 8th August will end on 7th Sept and till date, our elected leaders have done nothing but behave like spoilt brats!
According to the Rajya Sabha Bulletin, the agenda for government Bills includes 29 pending Bills for consideration and passing. One new Bill is listed for introduction, consideration and passing to replace the ordinances. The government plans to introduce 15 new Bills. Unlike in recent sessions, Lok Sabha and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs have not published the Agenda for the Session. Premonition that this session will also be a washout?
The PM and FM can say anything and cast aspersions on the very findings of the CAG on the coal scam but the fact remains that the onus lay on the ruling party and ultimately on the PM. Everything that happens under the watch of the PM is his responsibility so there is no way that he can shirk this scam. If the Govt is doubting the CAG too, then how can we trust the CBI or any other investigative agency? At the same time, why is the BJP not allowing a constructive debate to happen? Does it also have things to hide which is why this meaningless adjournment every day? Without a debate, can there be a solution? Merely causing a ruckus everyday and ensuring that the Parliament does not function at all does not solve anything. These politicians are available on all TV news channels, debating over the very same issues. So why not in the Parliament?
That unfortunately is the current scenario. Leadership abilities no longer pertain to leading the country to a better future or team building to reach the common objective. No way! Today’s leadership is all about each on his/her own, damn the country and its people! Objective is to only score a political point, who cares about common objective. Switch on any television channel and all we hear is this constant drone of controversies, all together sounding like a hound of dogs barking, baying for blood. Who let these dogs out?
We, the people of India deserve better governance and yes, a better opposition too. The very people for whom they are fighting for, allowing now work to happen, are the same people who are unfortunately paying for this loss of work. Opposition to everything and anything; no action of anything by the UPA; don’t we deserve better? The question which comes to mind when we see the adjournment day in and day out is – can’t we the people do anything about these politicians? Why is it that we don’t have the power to throw this bunch of people out, lock, stock and barrel!
The UPA is a today a symbol of complete poor governance and the Opposition is only compounding things further. We are the very same people who re-elected the UPA so it would be easy for many to say that we deserve what we are getting today? But did we have a better alternative? If the Opposition was more responsible, at least there was a choice. Today, between the devil and the deep sea, it would be better to just drown and die! Because that is precisely what UPA and the Opposition are doing – slowly killing India and Indians.
Liberalisation alone will not solve fiscal problems. World class shopping experience and more food subsidy for the poor in the Food Bill, all seem knee jerk and populist vote catching moves. If this is the way in which we continue, the rest of the world will soon recover and we might teeter on the brink of deep ravine. Or are we already in the ravine?