Prof M K Bhat
The inaugural session of 18th Lok Sabha saw offensive and counter offensive commotion after President’s speech. The leader of opposition spoke with the sole intention of loading allegations against Government without verifying their authenticity. His few utterings got instant rebuttal from treasury benches as ‘blatant lies’ mention can be made of payment to Agniveer martyrs. His offensive deliberation labelled all BJP members as non-Hindu and all those who name themselves as Hindus as violent. This way he not only infuriated BJP but also all those who proudly wear Hindu tag on their sleeves. He termed BJP and Sangh Parivar as hate driven, perhaps he meant to appease a section of his voters in this way. He also tried to sell his brand of secularism by showcasing different religions. The sole motive of his speech seemed that being offensive is big defense in itself. He tried to present himself as the voice of opposition and eloquently conveyed that things will not be allowed to pass through parliament without scrutiny by opposition. The return fire from Prime Minister was equally furious terming the leader of opposition speech as ‘Balak Buddhi.’ PM’s speech was continuously disrupted and finally the opposition resorted to walkout. The opposition was in no mood to listen to the answer from the prime minister.
The stormy inaugural session of parliament gave an inkling of future drama to unfold and makes one to doubt whether 18th Lok Sabha can contribute effectively for nation development or will the sessions wash down the drain without any concrete outcome. Dissentsion no doubt is an ornament of democracy but disruptions has become its Indian version in last a few years. Opposition for the sake of opposition leads to disruption, is becoming new norm, parliament has become a political theater, every rhetoric’s is applied, not only ruckus but even certain members paid allegiance to foreign countries, all this melodrama maligned the image of Indian parliament as things were going live. It was hard to believe that the parliament of 1.4 billion people would be acting like this. There was everything except serious discussion on the different challenges before the country. It is worthwhile to mention here that the expenditure incurred on conducting parliament amounts to 2.5 Lakh per minute. Here you can very well judge the loss to the exchequer from these rowdy scenes.
This behavior of the members has given rise to certain pertinent questions like how long will the tax payer bear the non- serious behavior of the members? Can the serious issues get their solution in this manner? Will disruption lead to any public good? Why shall people vote in elections? What message it gives to the people of the country and internationally? What will be its impact on major decisions of the country? what learning it will be having for 51.5% of Lok Sabha members who are first time parliamentarian? Why action should not be taken against those who lie in the parliament or resort to unparliamentary tactics? How this disruptive environment can chart out our way for Viksit Bharat? Why those not attending parliament shall get their perks, salary and funds? Why Parliament members across party lines are not ready to listen to the others view point?
The quality of discussions is already low and it is expected to dip further as maximum attention is being paid to make headlines in anyway. The role of opposition is to stop the ruling hegemony and put in better perspective. What one can expect from opposition when the leader of opposition lies in Parliament to make brownie points, when the faith of 80% is termed as violent, when the leader of opposition blames the chair for bowing to the leader of house despite his age being more than that of the speaker? (Om Birla’s age stands at 63 and Modi is 73 years) The speaker rightly termed it as his Sanskar, perhaps the leader of opposition, habitual of special treatment, expected the chair to bow to him despite being younger? Showing respect to elderly is Indian way of life.
The opposition has got the position of leader of opposition after a gap of ten years for failing to attain the criteria of 10% of Lok Sabha members. Congress managed to have 44 seats in 2014 and 52 seats in 2019 the party doubled its strength to 99 seats in this election. Rahul will be third leader of opposition from his family. His father Rajiv Gandhi and mother Sonia too were leaders of opposition in 1989-90 and 1999 to 2004 respectively. The speech of Rahul too was to convey that opposition is no more dead and can pave way for its future journey. He wanted to present himself as a mature politician ready to raise public issues so the target was directly Modi. He also tried to impinge in the Hindutva bastion of BJP and also wanted to break his stereo type image of Rahul Baba.
It will be herculean task for Modi too to keep his coalition partners happy as in his first two terms he enjoyed absolute majority. The ruling party too has to face strong opposition first time after10 years. It will get sleepless nights not only from its unreliable partners Nitish Kumar and Chandra Babu Naidu but over enthusiastic opposition too is in mood to relent. BJP may have to accommodate the opinion of those in opposition. It may be pointed here that 7 to 8% growth of the economy will give enough space to the ruling party to accommodate the financial demands of its coalition partners and can help it to continue its social schemes but this growth rate has to be maintained for 2 to 3 years. It may have to address the issues which led to its less than expected performance in the election 2024.
In all this melee there are certain prominent issues like; one nation one election, 33% reservation for women in parliament and state legislatures, delimitation -as 1.8 million people are represented by an MP from Tamil Nadu while as it stands at 3million citizens from UP. Delaying delimitation means delaying progressive reforms. No doubt the economic growth is quite high but the fruits of growth need to spread widely, exports need escalation, inflation control, large current account deficit, low investment, infrastructure needs for growth, and growing population etc. are other serious issues before the country.
The growing income inequality is another cause of concern for the country, the gap needs to be narrowed. The World inequality Lab in its ‘Working paper No 2024/09 income and wealth inequality in India 1922-23 -the rise of Billionaire Raj’ holds that in 2022-23, 22.6 % of the national income went to just top 1% and the share of wealth of top 1% stood at 40.1 percent in 2022-23
India boasts of a young population with over 65% falling in the age group of 15 to 64 years facing soaring unemployment rates. India’s youth continue to grapple with nearly 83% of the jobless population belonging to this demographic, as per employment report 2024 jointly published by international labour organisation and the Institute of Human Development. The report underscores a concerning trend where the population of educated young people possessing at least secondary education among the total unemployed youth has nearly doubled from 35.2 percent in 2000 to 65.7 percent in 2022.This requires stress on labour intensive investment and developing MSME sector in the economy.
Running Parliament in an amicable manner is the mutual responsibility of both the opposition and the Government. People of India expect both to accommodate each other for delivering on important issues before the country.
(The author is a faculty at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi)
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