The seat of Indian democracy has been attacked , no Iam not talking about the December 13th 2001 incident, where-in a few terrorists, allegedly belonging to the Jaish stormed into the Indian Parliament, in a foiled bid to take control over it. Iam talking about attack, that the highest legislating body of our democracy has been subjected to by our own politicians for the past few decades.
General elections, a process through which we send in our representatives to the Parliament is supposed to come once every five years. This is more in the Constitution books than in real life. Criminalisation and communalisation of politics have ensured that a voter generally has very few or no choices at all at an election.This is probably a reason for the poor voter turnouts in the last few elections. So much so, that the other day I saw a news report which said something like ’the turnout in today’s election in UP was pretty encouraging, about 56% percent of the people voted’. What does one mean while saying that nearly half your voters have not voted, but the turnout was good...??
The representatives of people, no matter which political outfit they belong to, rarely stand up to the standards expected from them in a democracy. Dont know whose idea it was to take the television camera into the Parliament for live telecast of certain business hours of the house, but the whole telecast is in such a bad taste. It does provide for some hearty laughs though (for those of you who can laugh during adversity). Its common to see most of the Lok Sabha empty. Its also common to spot MPs have a nice nap. Then at the otherend of the spectrum there are camera conscious ones, who are trying to obtain maximum television exposure by speaking out of turn, not letting the others speak and of course by slogan chanting desk thumping.
There are so many bills pending the Lok Sabha for example the Womens reservation bill ( not that I think today’s women need any reservation, according to me they have the courage and the conviction to achieve whatever they set out for and those that dont have courage and conviction, whether man or woman, don’t deserve any achievement). But just as an interesting case to point the womens reservation bill has been under consideration for atleast a few years now. Without it ever being brought up for legislation. Whats really interesting about this bill is officially the BJP ( the single largest party and the party heading the NDA government) as well as the Congress-I ( the second largest party, the party heading the Opposition and also the party with a greater say in the Upper house- Rajya Sabha) are both supporting the bill. Infact more than 80% of the present Parliament is made up of parties that officially support the bill. The bill is not introduced in the Lok Sabha to try and ’’build up consensus’’(!!!?) is the official response of the Parliamentary affairs minister Mr. Pramod Mahajan.
Where-as a seemingly unnecessary bill to increase the salaries of MPs was drafted, debated and made into a legislation with such a speed that could put Michael Schumacher and Ferrari to shame. A Lok Sabha session costs the Government several Lakhs per day. To waste this tax payers money in the name of political idealogies and in the form of walk outs and dharnas is a criminal offence. There was an attempt by the present speaker of the Lok sabha to try and make MPs more disciplined by introducing a code of conduct for the MPs. If the last session of the Parliament was anything to go by then that code of conduct has also been laid to rest.
To contest an election on a particular party’s ticket, to win it by swearing to the party’s principles( if there is any left, that is) and later to align with another party that has nothing in common with your own, is nothing but knocking the stuffing out of the democratic principles envisaged by people like B.R. Ambedkar. Horse-trading ( dont know who coined this term but I feel sorry for the horses), defecting and ( ever since anti-defection law has come into effect )splitting the party are all news items that dont shock us anymore. Immoral coalitions, meaningless promises & public posturing, vote-bank politics, jumbo sized cabinets, over staffed ministries are all here to stay unless and until the people of this country wake up and start holding their representatives accountable.
The educated section of Indian population ( you and me included)should try and take more interest in politics and political happenings. The Urban voting percentages should shoot up. Electing a candidate should be on the basis of their plus points (worse comes to worse, it should be ensured that lesser of the evils, is selected), rather than on the basis of caste, religion or money/muscle power.Only responsible people can elect a responsible Government. Only responsible people deserve a responsible Government. Lets all give a try and may be.... We shall overcome this hurdle....someday...